Ernie Cardenas
Ernesto "Ernie" Cardenas (Valente Rodriguez) has been George's best friend since kindergarten, and a former co-worker. He works on the assembly line at Power Bros. Aviation. He is an incompetent, big-eared, clumsy but loyal and lovable character. He is often very shy around women and cannot seem to ever get a date due to his awkwardness and overall inability to connect with women, let alone talk to them. He has a huge crush on Angie, and can often be seen hitting on her, much to George's distaste. He claims to be jealous of George's life. His mother is morbidly obese, and lots of jokes are made about her, especially by George and Benny (and sometimes Angie). He used to live with his parents until George inspired him to get his own apartment. He's also a foster father to Max's best friend, Ricky.
At one point, he was engaged to Ricky's mom Tammy because she was pregnant with another man's baby and he wanted a family. Later, they broke up because Tammy still wanted to sleep around when her and Ernie got married. His catchphrase is "Golly!". One joke was made by George when Ernie asked if George listen to his voicemail. "I don't listen to any of your messages. You call me every time you see a hot girl and then you take up five minutes of my voicemail going 'George! George! George!' Ernie's inept social skills and inability to talk to women is obviously a result of the over sheltered childhood and that his parents own problems rubbed off on him. Ernie is somewhat envious of George, because that they grew up together but George's life led to a beautiful wife two children and him being manager, While Ernie gained no such things and has been on the manufacturing floor for almost 30 years. On Lopez Tonight, the real George Lopez stated that he had a best friend named Ernie in real life.
Read more about this topic: List Of George Lopez Characters