One of my biggest regrets in life is misplacing an autographed picture of Bob Barker that was given to me as a young, game show obsessed child. I think my parents wrote in the show's ticket address asking for an autograph for me and I got the picture that way.
More germane to the topic, I think it depends on the level of celebrity. I have seen several sports blogs where people try to obtain autographs of every player in a set of cards. Some athletes charge for the autograph, while some are content to send back the card without asking for anything in return.
I LOVE ERNEST MOVIES, I'm trying to get them all. Ernest P. Wardall or whatever his last name was, he was such a loveable character. I see this pattern a lot in comedic archtypes, the loveable creative energetic characters who are usually classified as ditsy or airheaded sometimes, but still loveable kind of like Harley Quinn and Harpo Marx, it's this and the wacky tricker (Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker, Groucho Marx) that I do ton of research on. People archtypes head back years into literature. I can just talk off subject about it hours on end. lol Yes, it's definately this comedic personality study that's dear to my heart.
So this guy you guys were mentioning, was he that wacky chef from Ernest Goes To Camp, "Chicken....POT...Pie, Fenachitti Alfrado....First the Fenachitti, then a little chef named Alfrado." then throws this chef doll into the machine resulting into a splattered mess along with Lopsters. lol Probably my favorite scenes in the movie next to Ernest being shot in the air after unclogging the toilet. lol
I remember The Simpsons satirized them all the time. One I remember was Sideshow Bob laughing histarically when Ernest says "Vern, my heads' stuck in the toilet again." and Homer says "Oh come on, it's really not that funny." or something. lol But Simpsons later got Jim Varney on the show. As much as I disagree with Homer's line, I also appreciate spontanous mockery and satire all together. I'm a regular Mad Magazine reader. lol
Too Bad Jim Varney gone though, it would be nice to see more Ernest. Was it Touchtone pictures who owns him? I written a quarry letter to them one trying to get a PG rated slapstick comedy script out there, something to bring back the family slapstick comedy....And got rejected because it was "Unsolicited Material". But it's nothing I haven't heard before. lol