Hammy Herald

"Everybody listen to me! My name is Armando, Alejandro, Essssstrrrrrada! And this is my, Samoan Bulldozer, Umaga!"

— Monday Night Raw

Someone important is about to enter the scene. They may or may not be a Large Ham themself, but the character who announces their arrival definitely is, and gives the incoming big name a suitably over-the-top introduction.

Compare Inadvertent Entrance Cue and Large-Ham Announcer. Contrast Incoming Ham, where a Large Ham enters and announces himself.

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Examples

Anime & Manga

• The guy who announces the incoming guests in The Rose of Versailles. Justified, because he has to yell through the entire palace of Versailles.
• Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple
  • Kenichi's father uses this with his shotgun, Sebastian. He presses a button, and the gun starts sliding slowly out of a hidden panel in the wall, while he yells:
    "ARISE, SEBASTIAN!"
  • Also, Nijima. He's the one who coined the term "History's Strongest Disciple", a claim Kenichi adopted for when he needs a good boast.

Comic Books

• In On the Origin of PCs, a prequel book for The Order of the Stick, Elan is quite the Hammy Herald for his liege, Sir François the Paladin. Including when it's wholly inappropriate, like while entering a Bad Guy Bar.
  Elan: Behold, wretched hive of scum and villainy! The noble Sir François is here!
  Your days of seedy backroom dealings and poor personal hygiene are at an end, for he is here to wash this corrupt city clean!
  He is much like a giant scrub in that respect. He also has bristles — again, like a scrub brush.
  However, he is not easily held in one's hand and used to scrub cutlery, so that's one way he is different. I'm sure I cant think of other ways.
  Sir François: Um, Elan?
  Elan: Yes, oh vanquisher of unpleasantness?
  Sir François: Yeah, see, the thing is that this was supposed to be a low-profile visit.
  Elan: Oh! I can fix that!
  Attention, scum and villainy! If at all possible, please ignore the dashing and righteous Sir François as he goes about his business of making a few Gather Information checks regarding your illicit activities, to better shut them down at a later date.

Films — Animation

• The Prince Ali number in Aladdin is a multi-minute act of hammy heralding by the Genie.
  "Prince Ali! Fabulous he! Ali Ababwa!"
• In The Little Mermaid (1989), there is a a seahorse herald who announces the presence of King Triton, their king, as he enters the underwater concert venue as an honored guest. Then he proceeds to announce Sebastian, the king's chancellor, with a considerable degree more hamminess than the announcement of the king had gotten, even doing underwater flips during the extended introduction. Although the fact that Sebastian is the conductor of the concert that everyone is attending means that he is part of the spotlight.
• The White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland announcing "Her Highness, Her Excellency, Her Most Royal Majesty, THE QUEEN OF HEARTS" and in a much smaller voice, "and the King."
• In The Emperor's New Groove, Emperor Kuzco has a personal Theme Song Guy, voiced by Tom Jones, who introduces him in a bombastic song.

Films — Live-Action

• William's friend Geoff in A Knight's Tale. He whips the crowd into a frenzy for the pseudo-knight to do his thing. Chaucer, that is — Geoffrey Chaucer.
  Chaucer: My lords, my ladies (bows and turns to the crowd) and everybody else here not sitting on a cushion!
  Chaucer: SIR ULLLLLLLLLLLLLRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICH VON LICHENSTEIN! (Beat, to wild applause) God I'm good!
  • In the final joust, Adhemar's herald finally starts to ham it up as well and in turn gets more applause. Apparently hammy heralds are the way of the future.
• In Spider-Man, the wrestling announcer decides that Peter's stage name isn't cool enough and announces him dramatically as "the amazing SPIDER-MAN"! Naturally, he's played by Bruce Campbell.
• The introduction of a star in All That Jazz.
  O'Connor Flood: The word superstar is greatly overused in this business. But for my next guest, the word superstar is totally inadequate. [snip] I feel humbled in his presence. From deep, deep in here, ladies and gentlemen, let me lay on you... A great entertainer. A great humanitarian. And my dearest, dearest friend for 20 years.
• Davy Jones' introduction of the Kraken in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
• Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior features Toadie as herald of the villainous Lord Humongous:
  "Greetings from the Humongous! The Lord Humongous! The Warrior of the Wasteland! The Ayatollah of Rock-and-Rollah!"
• In TRON: Legacy, Jarvis's speech introducing Clu to the light cycle arena.
  Jarvis: And who best to battle this singular opponent? Perhaps one who has some experience in these matters? Oh yes indeed, programs! Your liberator! Your luminary! Your leader and beacon! The one who vanquished the tyranny of the user those many cycles before... Cllluuuuuuuuuu!
• The tournament announcer in The Wizard.
  "Super! Mario Brothers! THREEEEEEEE!"
• The Old Windbag from The Ten Commandments (1956).
• Played for Laughs much like the Order of the Stick example above in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Sir Robin's minstrels constantly sing boastful (and blatantly false) songs about the knight's bravery. This bites Sir Robin in the ass when he is clearly terrified of the three-headed knight and wants nothing more than to slip by him unnoticed, but his minstrels won't stop loudly singing his name and announcing that he is a Blood Knight who loves combat.
  Three-Headed Knight: Halt! Who art thou?
  Lead Minstrel: He is Brave Sir Robin, Brave Sir Robin-
  Sir Robin: Shut up! Nobody, really. I was just passing through
  Three-Headed Knight: What do you want?
  Lead Minstrel: To fiiiiiight aaaaaaaaand-
  Sir Robin: SHUT UP!!
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Ebony Maw gives elaborate speeches about the great Titan Thanos throughout Avengers: Infinity War.
    Ebony Maw: Hear me, and rejoice. You have had the privilege of being saved by the Great Titan. You may think this is suffering. No, it is salvation. The universal scales tip toward balance because of your sacrifice. Smile, for even in death, you have become children of Thanos.
  • In the mid-credits scene of Eternals, Pip the Troll acts as Eros's hype man, drunkenly introducing him before teleporting him in. In an aside to Pip, Eros says he really doesn't need to do the whole thing every time.

Literature

• Lampshaded and lampooned in The Belgariad: when 'Zakath holds a grand dinner and ball in Mal Zeth for his distinguished guests (Garion and company), the herald practically ruins his voice thundering the names and titles of the first few guests: the King and Queen of Riva, Duchess Polgara, Prince Kheldar, Margravine Liselle... Then he gets to Belgarath and is left speechless for lack of sufficient superlatives.
  Belgarath: Just say it. I'm fairly sure that they'll all recognize the name.
  Herald (in a faltering tone): Your Majesty, my lords and ladies, I have the unexpected honor to present Belgarath the Sorcerer.
• The bit in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets where everybody starts to think that Harry is the descendant of Salazar Slytherin, so Fred and George start marching in front of Harry and crying out, "Make way for the Heir of Slytherin! Seriously evil wizard coming through!" and stuff like that, in order to mock the notion.
• The nameless bankvole in Lord Brocktree who works as King Bucko Bigbone's herald can cover an enormous crowd when he announces the rules.
• The True Game has an entire character class called the Herald, whose role in the setting's battles is mainly to levitate into the air to issue declarations of war on behalf of his King.
  Herald of High King Prionde: All within sound of my voice pay heed: I speak for Mandor of Bannerwell, most adored, most jealously guarded, and for the High King, Prionde, of the High Demesne, most puissant, most terrible. I speak for these two in alliance here assembled to call Great Game and make unanswerable Challenge upon Himaggery, styled Wizard, who has in treacherous fashion betrayed the hospitality shown his followers by the High King by stealing away one dependent, the Seer Windlow, and who has betrayed the good will of Mandor by sending into his Demesne a spy, the Healer Silkhands. For these reasons and others, more numerous than the leaves upon the trees, all reasons of ill faith and betrayal, treachery and all ungameliness, do my Lords cry Challenge upon this Himaggery and wait his move. We cry True Game!
  Herald of Himaggery: (after a pause of a few minutes while Himaggery finishes preparing to kick Prionde's ass) Hear the words of Himaggery, Wizard of the Bright Demesne. The Wizard does not cry True Game. The Wizard cries Death, Pain, Horror, Mutilation, Wounds, Blood, Agony, Destruction. The Wizard calls all these and more. HE IS NOT PLAYING! (cue asskicking)

Live-Action TV

• Doctor Who: The Master is a very rare example of getting to play this role to himself by virtue of having multiple incarnations, who are more or less each their own person. In the revival series, he first returns as an old man called “Professor Yana” but quickly gets killed off. In his dying moments, the Yana Master muses that he wants to be “young and strong” like the Doctor, before overdramatically declaring “THE MASTERRRRRR! REEEEEEBOOOOOORN!” and transforming. Lo and behold, the Saxon Master is born as arguably the largest ham in the entire franchise. Yana Master’s implied declaration that the Saxon Master was coming in with gusto turned out to be VERY accurate.
• Monty Python's Flying Circus. An announcer at a nightclub introduces the next act.
  Kenny Lust: You know, once in a while it is my pleasure, and my privilege, to welcome here at the Refreshment Room, some of the truly great international artists of our time. And tonight we have one such artist. Ladies and gentlemen, someone whom I've always personally admired, perhaps more deeply, more strongly, more abjectly than ever before. A man, well more than a man, a god, a great god, whose personality is so totally and utterly wonderful my feeble words of welcome sound wretchedly and pathetically inadequate. Someone whose boots I would gladly lick clean until holes wore through my tongue, a man who is so totally and utterly wonderful, that I would rather be sealed in a pit of my own filth, than dare tread on the same stage with him. Ladies and gentlemen, the incomparably superior human being, Harry Fink!
  Club worker: He can't come!
  Kenny Lust: Never mind. He's not all he's cracked up to be.
• Happens several times in Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, usually in the form of Jii or Ryuunosuke giving a long-winded and boastful description of their Lord Takeru, only for Takeru to cut them off. Happens again when Kaoru receives the same treatment from her retainer, Tanba.
• Forever Knight. When LaCroix takes over vampire-hangout and gothic nightclub "The Raven", he decides to give it a more human look with a dose of Large Ham and blatant Fanservice.
  LaCroix: It's time to peel away the layers and reveal our inner selves. Yes, it's Amateur Night at the Raven, and tonight our amateurs will reveal their inner selves by GETTING NAKED!
• Kamen Rider Zi-O: Woz serves as this to Sougo/Kamen Rider Zi-O. Being a huge fan of the Evil Overlord Sougo will become in a Bad Future, every time he gets a new Rider Armor, Woz launches into a long speech about how amazing and incredible Sougo is, and how he is to become the Demon King. Apparently, he really likes making the speech.
  Woz: Rejoice! He is the heir to the power of all Riders! The king of time, ruling over past and future! His name is Kamen Rider Zi-O *Rider Armor*!
  • Sometimes, things turn out differently, When Sougo transforms into Grand Zi-O, he stops himself from doing so, claiming that words are unnecessary to describe the greatness standing before him. Taken up a notch in the final episode. When Sougo finally transforms into Oma Zi-O, Woz is so astonished and dumbstruck that Sougo has to order him to make his speech.

Music

• One of Ray Stevens' novelty song openings: "And now, ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, it is indeed a great pleasure to introduce to you — held over three weeks and getting rave reviews — BRIDGET....THE MIDGET... the Queen of the Blues! Woooooo!"
• The Beatles: At the end of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band's titular first track, the next track opens with the band's frontman introduced loudly as "BIIIIILLYYYYY SHEEEEEARS!".
• K.I.L.R.O.Y.: "We are your heroes! We are your salvation! We are your hope! We are... The Protomen!"

Pro Wrestling

• Plenty of ring announcers, Michael Buffer and Lilian Garcia, especially. Howard Finkel before either of them.
• The incredibly hammy Alberto Del Rio gets an even hammier introduction courtesy of his personal ring announcer, Ricardo Rodriguez.
• Theodore Long was this for Rodney Mack, Mark Henry, Jazz and Mark Jindrak. The two names in the middle were pretty hammy themselves but in general, the purpose of an announcer in wrestling is to provide ham to one who lacks it.
• Paul Bearer acted as this for The Undertaker.
• Armando, Alejandro, Estrada! The unsung hero (or not) who helped Umaga get over. WWE thought it worked too well and dropped him.
• Joel Gertner was this for The Dudley Boys in ECW, with his usual helpings of Refuge in Audacity.
  "The man who last night, took such liberties with YOUR mother, that he is now recognized, in five states, as your father, Big Dick Dudley!"
• Dr. Harvey Wippleman was this for Kamala in WWE in 1992.
• Jim Cornette was this for The Midnight Express. At NWA WrestleWar 90, for example:
  "Please welcome the Kings of the Ring, the Gangster of Love^note Stan Lane and the Sultan of Swing^note Bobby Eaton, Beautiful Bobby and Sweet Stan, the Midnight Express!"
• Paul Heyman will serve up a few meals worth of ham when he gets down to it.
  "Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Paul Heyman, and I am the One Behind The One in Twenty-One and One, the advocate for the reigning, defending, undisputed WWE World Heavyweight Champion, the Beast Incarnate, the Conqueror, BRRROOOCK LLLLESNAAARRR!"
• "Dr. Death" Steve Williams faced Bam Bam Bigelow at Herb Abrams' UWF's only PPV, Beach Brawl, in the tournament final for the UWF SportsChannel Television Championship. Bigelow got a normal introduction (weight, hometown, name.) Doc, on the other hand, got this, which presumably crushed the dreams of any Bigelow fans watching that night.
  "And his opponent, the roughest, toughest man in wrestling today, 'Dr. Death' Steve Williams. Coming down the aisle right now, getting cheered on by the crowd, 285-pounder from Lakewood, Colorado, a former football star, tremendous athlete, here vying for that championship belt to become the first-ever UWF Champion, and here they're squaring off in the middle of the ring, 'Dr. Death' and Bam Bam Bigelow."
• Louden Noxious/Gavin Loudspeaker in CHIKARA and Kaiju Big Battel.
  "Ladies and gentlemen, it is now time, for YOUR mmmmmmmmmmmmmainnnnnnn event of the evening!"
  • At CHIKARA JoshiMania, December 2-4, 2011, he amplified his usual dramatic introductions, with each woman receiving a wordy entrance that was repeated on all three shows.^note With one exception, see Unexpected Character.
• Jakob Hammermeier's original role in CHIKARA was as Die Bruderschaft des Kreuzes' ring announcer. For his own matches, he would announce himself, run to the back, and then run back to the ring.
• Willow Nightingale's intro:
  "From the Bronx, NY, she's got big hair and an even bigger smile. 'The Babe With The Power', WILLOW NIGHTINGALE!"
• Tessa Blanchard teamed with David Starr against Janelope (Joey Janela and Penelope Ford) at WWR Five Year Plan, and their intro has to be heard to be believed.

Puppet Shows

• On Sesame Street, this applies to Norm, herald to the Grand High Triangle Lover.

Theater

• In Hamilton, Aaron Burr, who serves as the All-Knowing Singing Narrator, does this no fewer than four times:
  • For Alexander Hamilton, in the titular song:
  "...and the world's gonna know his name! WHAT'S YOUR NAME, MAN?"
  • In "Right Hand Man":
  "Ladies and gentlemen! The moment you've been waiting for! The pride of Mount Vernon— GEOOOOOORGE WASHINGTON!"
  • In "Guns and Ships" for the Marquis du Lafayette:
  "Everyone give it up for America's favorite fightin' Frenchman!"
  • And in "What'd I Miss?" for Thomas Jefferson:
  "But someone's gotta keep the American Promise— you simply must meet Thomas, THOMAS!"
• Norwegian theatre had a natural Large Ham named August Oddvar. He fitted the trope when he announced the name of at least one particular Norwegian poet:

  BJØØØRNSTEEERNE BJØØØRNSSOON!!!!

Video Games

• One of the many variations the randomly generated Uruk Captains in Middle-earth: Shadow of War can have is the addition of a hype orc; a generic mook who will take over the Captain's intro, singing praises and boasts while the Captain himself just stands in the background.
• In The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel, Awakeners usually summon their Divine Knights just by raising their hands and shouting the names of their Divine Knights. Rean however summons Valimar by first having his right arm raised forward to his shoulder level with his fist closed and the palm upwards, then dramatically raises his hand and opens it while calling out Valimar.

Web Comics

• In Alice and the Nightmare, the President certainly hams it up when announcing the queen, his bombastic speech acting as an ouverture to her own Big Entrance.

Web Videos

• In Noob, Gaea's Instant Fan Club member Meuhmeuh seldom gets to act as a herald to her, but when he does, he does it in an over-the top way.
• Title Pending: When Caelan walks to the car, Bayden announces Caelan as an Instagram artist as loud as he can.

Western Animation

• In Yankee Doodle Daffy, Daffy Duck plays the agent for a kid duck singer. Daffy plays it up as if the kid were the greatest thing since sliced bread, although he turns out to be not so hot. The kid even holds up a picture of a ham while Daffy is praising him.
  Daffy: He's colossal, stupendous! One might even go so far as to say he's mediocre.
• In The Simpsons, assistant superintend Leopold starts out in a gruff manner to get the students' attention, raising his voice before he introduces the newest member of the school staff, who turns out to be someone other than Leopold:
  Leopold: All right, you listen up, you little freaks! The fun stops here: you're going to shut your stinking traps and behave, dammit! This is one substitute you're not going to screw with! [pause, he lowers his voice] Marge Simpson.
  • Leopold: All right you little punks, prick up your freakin' ears, because I'm only gonna say this once! From now on, things are gonna be very, very different around here... (his mood changes) ...with your new principal, Ned Flanders!

Real Life

• This is the job description of Ringmasters, MC's, and Sports Announcers. Obviously, in order to keep the crowd excited and entertained.
• Brazilian comedian José Simão has a segment on radio where his entrance is preceded by someone yelling his name in a way reminiscent of Tarzan's yell ("Hooooooooooséééé Simãooooo!").

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