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Megamind: Oh, you're a villain alright. Just not a super one.
Titan: Oh yeah? What's the difference?
In many conflicts between good and evil, who is going to be doing the lion's share of Chewing the Scenery? The villain(s) more likely than not. It's one way they are Obviously Evil and Drunk on the Dark Side.
As for why, it's not known for sure. Maybe it's a reflection of their total lack of inhibitions. Maybe they've decided that since they've already punted a few puppies, called down the lightning, and donned the Spikes of Villainy, they may as well have fun with it. And maybe the moral depravity of their act is balanced by how much fun they are to watch. Or this is used to indicate how Power and Evil feel Good. Whatever the reason, scenery is an important part of every villain's daily balanced breakfast.
That isn't to say the heroes never get to have such moments, but the villains will get the clear majority of them. Of course, when they both do, the awesomeness factor increases tenfold. A Genre Savvy Villain Protagonist will act hammy just because it's expected.
Also, when the villains are pretending to be good guys in some stories, they don't really act hammy, but when they show who they really are, they let loose, almost as if being a Large Ham is their true nature.
Often overlaps with Ham and Cheese.
Contrast Soft-Spoken Sadist (the villain is the calmest one in the room).
But if a hero is a Large Ham, or there is a World of Ham, it's not this trope (unless the villain manages to still out-ham everyone).
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
Comicbooks
- Many Silver Age villains.
- The Joker. In every possible incarnation of Batman.
- Silence, You Fool!! Nobody possesses more ham than DOOM
- The League of Evil Exes from Scott Pilgrim, especially the ones who are particularly evil. The film just makes it more obvious in most cases, especially since Lucas Lee and Roxanne Richter have their villain roles upgraded quite a bit. In the comics, Lucas Lee actually offers to leave Scott alone for money, and Roxanne does try to get back together with Ramona, unlike her outright aggressive stance in the film. Gideon...is MORE hammy in the comics.
- The first Robotnik from Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog series showed a bit of this, Eggman does as well, especially once his sanity starts slipping.
Fan Fiction
Film
- Profion in Dungeons & Dragons.
- M. Bison in Street Fighter, OF COURSE!!!. Raul Julia certainly gave himself a DELICIOUS send-off. (Sagat is also darn hammy, he just pales in comparison to Bison.)
- Palpatine in Star Wars Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, once it's known he is a Sith Lord. When he had his good guy facade on, he acted normally. When his evil side showed up, he started acting hammier. When he finally dropped the act altogether, he went to town (as Return of the Jedi, done many years before, shows).
- In Dark Empire, Palpatine actually says "I AM the Dark Side!"
- This is actually something of an occupational hazard for Sith, since they draw their power from raw passion and self restraint is, consequently, not exactly on the agenda. Notice that Palpatine is always at his hammiest when using or about to use The Dark Side.
- The Chronicles of Riddick: Colm Feore (The Lord Marshal), Karl Urban (Vaako), and Thandie Newton (Dame Vaako). Note that all three characters mentioned are Necromongers.
- Practically every villain in TRON: Legacy is a Large Ham, but especially the Big Bad. Clu uses his hamminess to make our world open and available to all of his programs. Yes! TO ALL OF THEM!!! And that's before you get to his agent Zuse, who chews the scenery with his Bowie-esque nature. A ying and yang of hams, if you think about it.
- Lex Luthor in Superman wasn't really hammy, just full of himself, but General Zod is a true ham. Kneel Before Zod's ham. Although his first instance was justified in that he was desperately pleading to avoid A Fate Worse Than Death.
Lois Lane: But millions of people will die!
Lex Luthor: BILLIONS! Once again, the press underestimates me.
- The Rocky Horror Picture Show: "I'm just a Sweet Transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvaniaaaaaaa..."
- Come to think of it, 90% of Tim Curry's roles fall under this. If he's playing a villain, it's a good chance it'll be a an awesomely hammy performance. Tim Curry does not know any other way to act other than completely over the top, chewing every piece of scenery in sight. And we love him for it.
" Excuse me, sir!! Do you have Prince Albert in a can?? YOU DO?? Well, ya better let the poor guy out!! WA-HAH! WA-HAH! WA-HAH!"
- Tim Curry outshines every Muppet as a Genre Savvy Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island. "Upstage, boys! This is my only number!"
- Freddy Krueger, in the later A Nightmare on Elm Street films.
- As said above, a requirement for any Batman movie villain. Possible aversions are from The Dark Knight Saga: Ra's al Ghul is notably suave and subdued, although Liam Neeson does chew some scenery in the role, and Two-Face also seems to be dead serious, particularly compared to the Joker.
- Christopher Lee occasionally indulges in this. Although fully capable of being subtle and understated, he knows what's expected of him. His performance in The Return of Captain Invincible especially, features Lee gleefully chowing down on the set.
- Al Pacino as the devil in The Devil's Advocate. Hell, Pacino in any role that's even remotely villainous.
God...is an absentee landlord!''
- Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter films. The same goes for Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange. Fenrir Greyback might be too, if he had any lines. It's not relegated to villains.
- Just about every Malcolm McDowell villain role.
- Galaxy Quest: Oh, Sarris...
"You fool! You fail to realize that, with your armor gone, my ship will tear through yours like TISSUE PAPER."
"Prepare a tear-harness! FOR THE FEMALE."
- Orlando Bloom as the Duke of Buckingham in The Three Musketeers (2011). And clearly enjoying every minute of it.
- This trope is seen in a nutshell in the famous "I am the law!" scene in Judge Dredd. The good guy spits out the ultra-hammy "You betrayed the law!" and just to show that evil go one step further, the villain responds "LAAAWW!!!!" taken Up to Eleven.
- Magneto from the X-Men movies, played by Sir Ian McKellen, has the odd moment of this. YOU SHOULDA KILLED ME WHEN YOU HAD THE CHANCE!!!
- He even hams silently when lifting a bridge in the third movie.
- Sadly, in X-Men: First Class, Michael Fassbender's Magneto is outclassed in the ham department by all six degrees of Sebastian Shaw.
- Many James Bond villains, such as Jonathan Pryce's Corrupt Corporate Executive media mogul Elliot Carver, from Tomorrow Never Dies.
- Inglourious Basterds. Adolf Hitler. Says it all really.
- Whenever someone gets possessed in the Night of the Demons series, you can bet they'll start chewing scenery as well as faces.
- In the live-action adaptation of The Last Airbender, Commander Zhao, played by Aasif Mandvi. Averted with Fire Lord Ozai, who is a Large Ham in the original cartoon but is soft-spoken and contemplative in the film.
- Megamind It's all in the PRESENTATION!.
- Andy Robinson is decidedly... unsubtle as the Scorpio Killer in Dirty Harry.
Literature
- Visser Three in Animorphs. While thought-speak can be directed at one, several, or even everyone in range, the Visser is CONSTANTLY BROADCASTING HIS PRESENCE to all, including his enemies. In fact, in the whole series (when in an Andalite body), he speaks to one person at a time a grand total of ONCE.
- Averted by Lily Weatherwax in Witches Abroad; she's actually somewhat menacingly toned down. What makes this instance notable, though, is the way her sister, Esmerelda "Granny" Weatherwax, reacts; the very fact that Lily isn't Chewing the Scenery enrages her as much as all the damage she's done to innocent lives over the years. Lily went off to be the bad sister, leaving Esme to be the good one, but Lily spent the whole time deluding herself that she was the good one, so even though there was no doubt which sister she was, she never took the opportunity to enjoy it. To Granny this is almost as bad as denying Esme the choice in the first place.
- Venandakatra the Vile in the Belisarius Series. He is a devotee of every vice known to man, and some that haven't been discovered to this day. He loves hurting people, except when they fight back. He wages war by pitching an array of tents that are more ostentatious and less tasteful then the palaces of more Modest Royalty and then makes guarding his comfort a primary objective of his campaigns. He has the most expensive feasts constantly dumped into his mouth and he treats slave girls much like food, to be consumed and the husks discarded; and sex to him is no fun unless combined with torture. The book also makes a point of mentioning that he is called The Vile and not The Cruel because the latter might imply respect. In general, the chief pleasure a reader takes in his character is that it is almost impossible to imagine someone so extravagantly and flamboyantly evil - even if we know such people exist in Real Life.
- Kerrigor in The Old Kingdom. "Blood for the breaking!"
- Baron Vladimir Harkonnen in Dune.
- Ian McNeice definitely shows it in his portrayal of the baron in the miniseries.
- Invoked in The Tamuli when the normally restrained Sir Bevier goes undercover at the villain's camp as a mercenary. He attempts to appear "dangerously competent" but his stage training takes over, and as a result he ends up looking like a homicidal maniac and Psycho for Hire, and leaves the entire camp terrified of him.
Live-Action TV
Theater
- Any Pantomime villain worth his salt.
- The Wolf from The Trial of the Big Bad Wolf requires a Large Ham, to contrast with his lethargic attorney.
- Cora in Anyone Can Whistle is a first-class scene stealer.
Video Games
- Pick the Big Bad of a Kingdom Hearts game. Any one of 'em. They're this trope. Ansem, Seeker of Darkness/Xehanort's Heartless gets an extra special mention here. Also, see the Disney Villains list below.
- Xemnas is an exceptional example. It's in his character to be as hammy as possible. Having no emotions, he makes up for it with exaggerated hand gestures and stretches out a lot of his lines to seem more emotional.
- Wesker in the Resident Evil series.
- The Dark Savant in Wizardry 8.
- In Dissidia: Final Fantasy, the entire Chaos faction exemplifies this trope with all of the hammiest villains of the series. The only exceptions are Golbez ( but he isn't really part of the Chaos faction...), Sephiroth and Ultimecia, who are fairly restrained. Odd because Ultimecia was quite hammy in her respective game. ("KURSE YOU SEEDS!")
- Kane in Command & Conquer becomes ever increasingly hammy as time goes on.
- Dawn of War, since it takes place in Warhammer 40,000, everyone is evil, and hence everyone is hammy, even if they are a Magnificent Bastard.
- Arius from Devil May Cry. "OH! NO! I was going to be KEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENNG of this world!"
- Arkham and his devil trigger Jester also is a rich source of Ham. With the latter its intentional, as he tried to act like a fool in order to effectively play the sons of Sparda and Lady against each other. And it could also be a way of unleashing his inner goofball beneath that serious facade.
- Flemeth in Dragon Age is very hammy when she isn't pretending to be simply a batty old lady, and gets much more so in Dragon Age 2. Being voiced by Captain Janeway really helps.
- Loghain becomes much hammier after his Face Heel Turn.
- Though averted for the most part in the first game, since the Darkspawn can't, you know, talk. Until Awakening, when they can talk and get their full opportunity to be hammy.
- Special mention goes to the ham-tastic Mother. Her shrieking Villainous Breakdown is a whole roast suckling pig's worth of ham.
- Knight-Commander Meredith in Dragon Age 2 is one of the best examples in the entire series.
- Not to mention Well-Intentioned Extremist teammate Anders; while he's only hammy in combat (actually, he's usually soft-spoken otherwise), his combat taunts (and screaming) are a bountiful platter of ham.
- Liquid Snake manages to do this every chance he gets in Metal Gear Solid.
- Psycho Mantis as well. "You! You doubt my power?!"
- Xenosaga gives us Albedo Piazzolla, an incurable muncher, complete with rampant evil laughs at any given opportunity.
- Vice President RIICHAAARD!! Hawk in Metal Wolf Chaos opened his every appearance with an Evil Laugh and gleefully delivered lines such as...
RICHARD: "This wild dog of war is on the move, Michael! It'll bite you if you don't move it! It's time for my afternoon tea. There's nothing like sipping some delicious Darjeeling tea...and watching you getting your clock cleaned!"
- BlazBlue: Hazama/Yuuki Terumi. Part of the reason he's so Laughably Evil is because his voice actors are clearly having a hell of a time.
- Sir Richard Hawksmoor in Ghost Hunter. Sir Michael Gambon practically introduces himself with "I want FLESH." An incredible contrast with his role of Dumbledore in the movies.
- Nergal from the 2003 game Fire Emblem wasn't THAT hammy until we got to see his disfiguring scar by the end of the game. Then, he unleashed his inner ham and let it run wild.
- In Starcraft, the Zerg Overmind's first line is: "Awaken, my child, and embrace the glory that is your birthright." Every one of its subsequent lines is equally epic and pompous.
- "Know that I am the Overmind, the eternal will of the Swarm, and that you have been created to serve me..."
- DAN GREEN as Mephiles the Dark is one of the very few good points of Sonic The Hedgehog 2006 for precisely this reason.
- Eggman has always showed spades of this, but in more recent games (especially in Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations) he's been invoking this full-on.
- In Portal, once you escape the fire pit, GLaDOS starts along this path. She really goes to town once you you incinerate her morality core.
- In Portal 2 Wheatley gains several levels in ham when you yank GLaDOS out and plug him in. Apparently, a certain amount of hamminess is literally hardwired into the system.
- The Sengoku Basara versions of Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Ishida Mitsunari. The first is absolutely, baby-eatingly, skull-cup-usingly Obviously Evil, and even has ominous background music and Dramatic Thunder to back him up. And he's voiced by Norio Wakamoto. Hideyoshi is the type to surround three armies at war, and demand ALL of their surrenders at once in a loud voice and with an even louder fist. He then goes ahead and obliges some hotblooded heroes. He also parts the seas. Mitsunari really likes shouting about what he is going to do to his enemies, specifically those who side with Ieyasu. Mitsunari does not say "Ieyasu!" He says, "IEEEYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASU!!!!!!!!"
- The X-Men arcade game introduces us to MAGNETO, MASTER OF MAGNET! Who wants those X-CHICKEN to know that THEY ARE NOTHING and would like to welcome them TO DIE!!
- Assassins Creed Brotherhood: If Cesare wants to live, he lives. If he wants to take, he takes. If he wants you to die, you die, and if he wants to ham, he HAAAAAAAAAMS!
- The evilest of all Suikoden villains, Luca Blight, is also the hammiest, with lots of exclamation marks, distinctive Evil Laugh of "HOO HOO HOO HA HA HA HA HA!!!" and of course his famous last words "It took hundreds to kill me, but I KILLED BY THOUSANDS! LOOK AT ME!!! I AM SUBLIME!!! I AM THE TRUE FACE OF EVIL!!!!! *Evil Laughs to death*"
- Jegran in Crystal Bearers, after he drops pretending to be good.
- Barlowe in Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia normally speaks with a very neutral and verbose tone. However, once his true colours are revealed, he goes nuts with wild abandon, laughing manically the whole time.
- And Dracula. In pretty much every game with voice acting.
- Death from Castlevania: Lords of Shadow simply never shuts up in his 5 minutes hammy speech even though he has been quite normal when he stayed as Zobek, your ally.
- The Legend of Zelda gives us Lord Ghirahim in Skyward Sword, aka Mr. Furious! OUTRAGED! SICK WITH ANGER!! Zant from Twilight Princess is similarly hammy, especially during his Villainous Breakdown. Ganon is also somewhat hammy (literally, in certain situations), but he's rather restrained compared to the other two.
- Geldoblame, of Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean, is far and away the hammiest character in the game, and (unintentionally) probably the best-voiced character, just because it's so amusing.
- The Professor Layton series isn't exactly a World of Ham, often going with one hammed line per game, but it is ALWAYS said by a villain.
Don Paolo: Heeere I come.... READY OR NOT!
Anton: LAAAYTOOOON!!
Clive: This isn't happening... It can't end this way... IT WON'T END THIS WAAAY!!
- You can summon a prime example of this in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim by using a "Conjure Dremora Lord" spell.
*Impales helpless bandit*
- The Galactic Emperor from Gotcha Force is this trope, pure and simple. Let's look at his nice little pre-final battle speech...
Galactic Emperor: MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! PUNY HUMANS, JUDGMENT TIME HAS ARRIVED! I'LL FINISH YOU ALL HERE! FIRST THIS PLANET, THEN THE WHOLE GALAXY! YOU AND YOUR SILLY GOTCHA BORGS WILL BE EXTERMINATED!! MWAHAHAHAHA!!
Web Comics
Web Original
- Dr. Insano from The Spoony Experiment and Atop the Fourth Wall, and also his Alternate Universe counterparts, including Linksano.
- Doctor Steel loves Chewing the Scenery.
- Agamemnon Tiberius Vacuum, the Inarguable Eternal Leader of the glorious and superior Planet 3. "THE VACUUM CONSORTIUM: SUBMIT WILLINGLY!"
- As if their film versions weren't hammy enough, Team StarKid's versions of Snape, Voldemort, Bellatrix, Lucius, and Umbridge take this trope Up to Eleven.
- Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog: Doctor Horrible gets some rather hammy moments.
- The AI O'Malley from Red vs. Blue. Just one example, after he's been asked to examine one of the Blue Team:
O'Malley: We want something from you, but we're not going to tell you what it is, until we need it! Huhuhuhuahahahaha!
Church: No way! I'm not agreeing to something without knowing what it is!
O'Malley: Huhuhuhuhuhuh Oh yes you will. You will or your little friend Tucker will die, die a most horrible death. And you know his blood will be on your hands. Years from now, you'll drive yourself mad wondering if there was anything you could have done to save him, so you will agree to what I want. You will agree even though what I want is something mysterious, what I want is something frightening, what I want is something PUUUUUUUUUURE EEEEEEEEEEVIL, AAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!
- Every vilain in Stupid Mario Brothers is this especially The Darkness.
- Dark Chaos in Chaos Storm displays this on a regular basis. Being Stupid Evil, his hammy lines aren't taken too seriously.
Chris: A nut by any other name is just as lame.
- Pathetic from the french Kingdom Heart saga mp3 parody Kingdom Paf is basically the incarnation of this trope. She acts hammy even when washing her hands, preparing her lunch or playing video games.
Western Animation
- Most Disney TV animated villians.
- The Disney Animated Canon villains are even hammier.
- Aku from Samurai Jack.
- Plankton from Sponge Bob Square Pants.
- Megatron of Beast Wars. His suave megalomania and much-loved Verbal Tic made him very popular among the fans, yeeeessssss...
- For that matter, all the other Megatrons in the various Transformers series, as well as the various incarnations of Starscream. Not usually as distinctive due to a lack of verbal tics, but nevertheless tending towards dramatic speeches, bombastic tones, and a flair for impressive presentation.
- Transformers Animated Starscream is the best at it. "YOU INTERRUPTED MY SPEEEEEEEEEEEECH!"
- Admiral Zhao and Fire Lord Ozai of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Azula too sometimes.
- She must have got it from Ozai. He says prepare to die.
- Resident Villain Tobe on Pucca. Taken to insanely OTT levels in the Spanish dub.
- Dr. Ivo Robotnik from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog.
- Mr. Burns from The Simpsons. "Moments from now, I will wreak a terrible vengence on this town! NO ONE WILL BE SPARED! NO ONE!
- To say nothing of Sideshow Bob.
- From Teen Titans, Brother Blood, Trigon and a lot of the minor villains (notably Mumbo, Mad Mod, Killer Moth, and Dr. Light) are all rather hammy. Averted with the show's main Big Bad, Slade, however, who almost never varies his voice from a very Creepy Monotone, and the Brain, season five's Big Bad, who speaks through a voice synthesizer and really can't ham, even when he obviously wants to.
- While The Brain can't ham, Mallah, his TALKING GORILLA lover (though that never comes up in the cartoon, for obvious reasons) does a pretty good job of it.
- Gargoyles covers the whole spectrum:
- Xanatos and his wife Fox are always very calm and poised, and their Battle Butler Owen is absolutely (and deliberately) wooden.
- Demona can range from dangerously understated to completely hammy depending on her mood, as can Thailog. Sevarius loves to ham it up when he's got an audience, but is calmer and more businesslike otherwise.
- On the far end of the spectrum you've got the Archmage, Oberon, and most of the Pack, who are absolutely and continually hammy.
- Done intentionally in the Dreamworks animated film Megamind. The title character even believes that supervillainy isn't just about villainy, it's about PRESENTATION!!!!
- When he gets on a roll, The Monarch from The Venture Bros. is the pinnacle of this trope.
- El Supremo from obscure British animated film Freddie as FRO 7 takes this Up to Eleven. Being voiced by BRIAN BLESSED doesn't hurt either. Check it out starting at 6:15
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- Zim from Invader Zim.
- Father from Codename Kids Next Door. What scenery he does not burn, he chews with abandon.
- Most Care Bears villains
- A number of villains in The Spectacular Spider-Man
- Especially in the appearances after his first, Doctor Octopus becomes a cunning Card-Carrying Villain down to having an Evil Genius coffee mug, and accordingly, becomes immensely hammy ("TREACHERY!!!" anyone?)
- Electro has a Hair-Trigger Temper on account of his Power Incontinence and can instantly be prompted into a violent rampage by anyone calling him Max (his name before transformation). On some level, he's kind of amusing, but it's also pretty distrubing given his clear Sanity Slippage.
- Green Goblin is a highly amusing Laughably Evil ham who seems to be Steve Blum's homage to the Joker from Batman: The Animated Series
- Mysterio seems to have walked out of the Silver Age, having an immensely hammy Evil Sorceror persona, talking in a Fake Brit accent and throwing around Gratuitious Latin. As with the Goblin, Mysterio interestingly isn't all that hammy in his civilian identity. In Mysterio's case, he's partly Doing It for the Art, and for both, it's a combination of a supervillain perk and to hide how dangerous and cunning they actually are.
- On G.I. Joe we have Cobra Commander, coupled with his having No Indoor Voice. Then there's also Destro, The Baroness, Tomax and Xamot... Why don't we save time and say that being a Large Ham is pretty much a requirement in order to move up in the ranks of COBRA.
- Luna and Discord, both from My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic. In "Luna Eclipsed", this was somewhat Deconstructed in that it gave Luna a PR problem when she still talked in full Large Ham mode even after her Heel Face Turn.
- While more jerkish than evil, the Great and Powerful Trixie is also a very Large Ham.
- Hammy Pony Villains go back to the original G1 pilot with Tirek. "Behold the Rainbow of DARKNESS!! Bring forth The Night That Never Ends!!!"
- Mumm-ra the EEEEVEEEERRR-LIIIIVVVIIIING! of ThunderCats and ThunderCats (2011)
- Mojo Jojo of The Powerpuff Girls.
- Lots of Danny Phantom villains are hammy: Box Ghost, Lunch Lady, Undergrowth, and even Vlad Plasmius all have their moments. But the prize for largest ham goes to Technus, self-proclaimed "Master of Long-Winded Introductions."
Other/Real Life
- Many modern day depictions of Adolf Hitler. (It helps that any film of his speeches shows he was quite hammy in public appearances.)
- Many a tinpot dictator. It's almost like it's a job requirement. (Well, if you're megalomaniac enough to take over...) Examples include:
- Depictions of Saddam Hussein: Animaniacs, South Park and maybe Deadliest Warrior.
- Idi Amin, whose full title is "His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda".
- Muammar Gaddafi, especially during the Libyan uprising/civil war, and during his last days.
- "Evil" is probably going too far, but it's worth noting that test audiences for Good Night, and Good Luck. complained that the actor playing Senator Joe McCarthy of the House Un-American Activities was really overdoing it. It was, of course, archive footage of the man himself.
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