Hammy Villain, Serious Hero

What else would you expect from Mark Ham-ill?

This trope is a villain/hero dynamic where the hammy, energetic villain is a foil to the plainer, more reserved hero.

The hero is stoic, possibly as a result of a traumatic experience that robbed them of their brightness and optimism. They may be a genuine loner or just act cold and aloof to keep their loved ones safe or to protect themself. They might even wear dark clothes to express their brooding, withdrawn nature and be sensitive about their personal space being invaded.

The villain, in contrast, is energetic, chatty, and hammy—maybe naturally, maybe because they are an attention-seeker, or an opposite response to trauma. They may be overly-friendly, Ax-Crazy, happily and proudly sadistic, flamboyant, mischievous, easily bored, and/or childish. They will often have No Sense of Personal Space (much to the hero's chagrin) and prefer brighter, flashier clothing.

This contrast inevitably creates tension between the villain and hero. Often the villain will be fascinated and perplexed by the hero's stoic, by-the-book nature and may make it their goal to break this demeanour or otherwise compromise the hero's ideals.

Subtrope of Ham and Deadpan Duo. This type of foiling usually emphasises Evil Is Hammy. Can result in an extremely Likable Villain and sometimes a Friendly Rivalry. The villain can often be a Magnificent Bastard and is always a Large Ham. The hero may be a Deadpan Snarker to complement their stoic nature. Relies on Bright Is Not Good and Dark Is Not Evil. Compare Straight Man and Wise Guy, Classic Villain, Cynic–Idealist Duo, and Wacky Parent, Serious Child. May be a Technician vs. Performer situation. Contrast/compare Opposites Attract and Polite Villains, Rude Heroes. Can result in Foe Romance Subtext. Contrast Vile Villain, Saccharine Show and Snarky Villain, Earnest Hero.

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Examples

Anime & Manga

• In Cells at Work!, White Blood Cell is the main hero and is known to be very stoic and serious. The majority of the Villain of the Week germs he goes up against are cartoonishly evil and hammy.
• In Dragon Ball, while Goku averts this being the Big Fun Stock Shōnen Hero, secondary protagonists like Vegeta and Piccolo are both very stern and serious, and end up going up against the many Ax-Crazy Smug Super villains like Frieza, Cell, Majin Buu, or Goku Black.
• Full Metal Panic!: Sosuke Sagara is always serious and attentive, if a bit paranoid. His nemesis, Gauron, tends to be as hammy as they come, including calling Sosuke "honey" in battle. Gates, another foe, may even out-ham Gauron.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders: Jotaro Kujo's almost comically serious disposition goes up against the flamboyant, loud, and Drunk on the Dark Side DIO in the part's climax. DIO's dialogue is full of shrieking maniacally and This Cannot Be!, while it's almost impossible to tell what emotions are running through Jotaro's head during the fight.
• My Hero Academia: Downplayed. While not a villain, Monoma is an antagonist for Class 1-A during the Tournament Festival and Joint Training arcs, and is extremely hammy, prone going on long, ranting monologues and bouts of maniacal laughter whenever he appears. He stands out even against the most energetic Class 1-A students, especially when provoking them, to the point that people wonder if he's just insane.
• My-HiME: Natsuki Kuga and Nao Yuuki are Mirror Characters, both having lost their mothers at a young age due to violence, and both of them revealed to be HiME. Natsuki is The Stoic who tends to brood, but after becoming Fire-Forged Friends works with the the heroine, Mai. Nao, on the other hand, is a Fille Fatale who engages in Compensated Dating with a twist, being that she uses her powers to assault and rob her "clients". Nao also delights in such hammy tactics as Finger Licking Evil, and phoning Mai when she's going after her brother in a case of Targeted to Hurt the Hero. When Nao goes after Natsuki, she ties her up and takes pictures of her in her defeat before attempting to put her eye out. And later, when Nao attacks Natsuki again, she is now using her as bait to draw out Natsuki's Love Interest Shizuru for a rematch and mocks Natsuki by making kittenish gestures.
• Tsuna of Reborn! (2004) can be a very expressive Nice Guy and dorky, but around some of his enemies who are Axe-Crazy he can be more serious, no-nonsense, and reserved in contrast. As it turns out, this is an effect of one of the states of his powers.
• Sk8 the Infinity shows this dynamic between Adam and Langa. Adam is overdramatic and always makes a big entrance when he shows up in "S." He's obsessed with finding someone who's interesting enough and has amazing skating skills to play against him in a race, calling that person "Eve." So, when he meets the serious and composed Langa he becomes immediately enamored with him due to his skills and the fact that he isn't scared of facing Adam, but he actually feels a thrill from it, much to Adam's shock. His one-sided fascination with Langa begins from this point onwards.
• In Sword Art Online, Kirito who is typically very serious in battle has gone up against a fair few hammy villains like Sugou, Death Gun, and Eiji.
• In Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yami Yugi tends to be very stoic and serious as he battles the many Ax-Crazy and hammy villains like Pegasus, Yami Bakura, Yami Marik, Dartz, and Zorc Necrophades.

Comic Books

• Batman is famous for being a dark, stoic, no-nonsense, justice-driven vigilante, while his Arch-Enemy, the Joker, is a manic, deranged Monster Clown. Perhaps the Joker's greatest goal is to drive Batman insane and make the Dark Knight just like him.
• While Spider-Man is Marvel's king of snark, his modern incarnations are down-to-earth Nice Guys who work harder to pay their bills than fight supervillains. Most of his rogues gallery is anything but, including the cackling Green Goblin, the egotistic Doctor Octopus, the wrathful Venom, and the theatrical Mysterio.
• Superman: Superman/Clark Kent most of the time is a quiet, polite, professional, and friendly guy in his superheroic persona. Many of his long-running villains are rather hammy and grandiose, such as Corrupt Corporate Executive Lex Luthor, Large Ham Bizarro, Cold Ham Brainiac, galactic conqueror Darkseid, egostical Lobo, and mischievous Mister Mxyzptlk.
• Wonder Woman (1987): Diana and Circe have had this dynamic since the '90s. While Diana isn't much for brooding and does have her humorous moments, she is rather serious-minded and reserved. Circe by contrast, is a cackling Vain Sorceress with a theatrical flair.

Fan Works

• The Mountain and the Wolf: The Wolf is a huge, loud, obnoxiously friendly Champion of Chaos whose every other sentence is a Fisticuff-Provoking Comment. By contrast, everyone on the heroic side barely tolerates his presence while he's allied with them and are usually in Tranquil Fury after he shows his true colors. Tyrion in particular dreads him because the Wolf gets it in his head that Tyrion is the worthiest man he's met in Westeros due to his feats of killing a man with a shield or freeing a pair of dragons, never referring to him as anything but Shield-slayer and inviting him to join his crew.

Film — Animated

• Beauty and the Beast: Belle and Gaston are polar opposites in every way imaginable. Belle is kind, patient, calm, and intelligent. Gaston, meanwhile, is rude, impulsive, loud, and dumb. These negative qualities are, understandably, way too much for Belle to handle, which is why she continuously rejects Gaston's advances, no matter how hard he tries, acting super loud and impulsive all the while. No one is hammy like Gaston!
• Herc from Disney's Hercules is a sweet, fun-loving Nice Guy but his personality turns much more serious and Tranquil Fury against the more hammy, comedic, and easily angered Hades.
• In The Lion King (1994) the hero's father Mufasa and his evil brother Scar. Mufasa is a stern and dignified ruler, whereas Scar is hammy and snarky. This is less pronounced at first with the hero Simba, who is a more carefree spirit than his dad, but he becomes very serious by the final confrontation with Scar.
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: The main heroine Snow White is demure, hard-working, and friendly while her Evil Stepmother the Evil Queen is a domineering, spiteful Cold Ham.

Film — Live-Action

• Batman (1989): While most live-action Batman films tend to make the Joker more menacing and psychotic, Jack Nicholson's take leans more into his goofy, comedic nature with hammy dances, one-liners, and sight gags, really making him stand out against the brooding, serious Batman.
• Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Jesse Eisenberg plays the character as incredibly comical and hammy compared to the more stoic Superman and Batman.
• Daredevil (2003): The titular hero is very intense and harsh. By contrast, the villains Kingpin and Bullseye are humorous, extravagant, and comical in the way they act.
• Demolition Man: John "The Demolition Man" Spartan is a Cowboy Cop known for all the needless Collateral Damage he causes when he arrests a criminal, and his current Arch-Nemesis is Simon Phoenix, an psychopathic crime lord. Although Spartan has moments where he has outbursts of anger, for the most part, he's pretty reserved and can maintain his cool, Phoenix on the other hand relishes that he's a total wack-job with a penchant for the dramatic.
• Elysium: Taciturn, blue-collar thief Max Acosta (whose only concern is saving his own life from radiation poisoning) is the direct opposite of Agent Kruger, a renegade, cackling, Ax-Crazy government thug who takes joy out of causing as much collateral damage as possible.
• In Face/Off, Castor Troy is a Large Ham terrorist and arms dealer, while Sean Archer is an emotionally withdrawn FBI agent.
• Fast X: Jason Momoa plays Dante as a campy Large Ham in an unexpected turn for both the actor and the franchise.
• Kong: Skull Island: Slightly downplayed. Packard, the General Ripper main human antagonist, is played by Samuel L. Jackson, and although Packard is played with quite a brooding demeanor and a near-chronic Death Glare, it's pretty clear that there was no stipulation saying that Sam L. could only play the character as a Cold Ham. Conrad, Weaver, and Randa, by contrast, are a lot more broody, calm, and no-nonsense, and at least two of them have very dark backstories to reflect this.
• Ulysses Klaue is quite the Large Ham in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It's somewhat hidden when we see him against the equally snarky Avengers in Avengers: Age of Ultron, but is glaringly obvious when the grinning, croony, hammy Klaue shares the screen with the more no-nonsense T'Challa in Black Panther (2018).
• In Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Cary Elwes plays Robin as a fairly straight-laced Deadpan Snarker. The Sheriff Of Rottingham, on the other hand, is wildly hammy with a major flair for the dramatic. To give a quick illustration of the difference, at one point during their final duel, the two get into a Blade Lock. Robin spends the whole time with a slight smirk of confidence, while Rottingham is growling and snarling in an animalistic fashion.
• Scream:
  • Sidney is the protagonist of Screams 1-4, and she is withdrawn, quiet, stoic, and depressed following the death of her mother (and, later, the murder of nearly everyone else she's close to). She is contrasted by the killer in each installment, who are (for the most part) showmen or women. In Scream (1996), she's contrasted against Billy and Stu, who are both goofy, loud, and full of themselves.
  • In Scream 2, she's contrasted by Mickey, who initially appears to be more on Sidney's wavelength as more sombre and withdrawn before being revealed as perhaps the showiest Ghostface, aiming for a sensationalized trial, and Mrs Loomis, who is dramatic and motivated by relentless anger towards Sidney and the people she blames for Billy's death. In Scream 4, she is also contrasted by her Evil Counterpart Jill, who is portrayed as a Sidney Expy with similar even-handedness compared to her goofy best friend Kirby...until she takes off her Ghostface mask and reveals herself as a Cold Ham.
  • The protagonist of Scream (2022) and Scream VI is Sam Loomis, who is a guilt-ridden Prodigal Hero who is forced back to her hometown by her sister Tara's attack. Tara appears to have been bubblier prior to her attack by being severely injured in the opening scene takes its toll on her, too. They are contrasted by the killers, Sam's goofy boyfriend Ritchie, who loses none of his easy and chatty charm when he's revealed as the killer, and Tara's best friend Amber, who beams with joy and brags exuberantly about how she killed Dewey.
• Speed: Jack Traven is The Stoic and, while he makes a few jokes, is fairly serious throughout the film. His nemesis Howard Payne is a cheerful, Faux Affably Evil Mad Bomber who is constantly cracking jokes and devouring scenery whenever he isn't blowing it up.
• Superman Returns: Superman is quiet and introverted to contrast the loud and bombastic Lex Luthor.
• Van Helsing: Though he's quite the Deadpan Snarker, Van Helsing is pretty quiet and reserved around people he doesn't know or trust, and it's really only around Carl, a friar who's also a close friend and ally to Van Helsing, that Van Helsing shows a much more jovial and light-hearted side to him. By contrast, Dracula prefers to spend every possible second he can making dramatic speeches and chewing the scenery and almost revels in it, no matter who his audience might be.
• X-Men: A minor example. During the climax, the mostly serious Cyclops, Jean, and Storm are attacked by Toad, who is played with an almost gleeful hamminess by Ray Park.

Live-Action TV

• Arrow:
  • Anarchy from Season Four really gets a kick out of seeing what people do in the absence of societal constraints. This is a stark contrast to Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow, whose main priority is restoring balance and order by removing the city's villainous underbelly. Anarchy is always giggling maniacally and bouncing from place to place while Oliver rarely cracks a smile and is very methodical in his actions.
  • Several of Oliver's nemeses have been energetic and maniacal, including the Laughably Evil Damien Darhk, or Adrian Chase/Prometheus who is a smug Stalker without a Crush while Oliver Queen/Green Arrow contrasts them as The Comically Serious hero.
• Barry Allen from the The Flash (2014) isn't as dark and stoic as most superheroes, but he's usually the straight man to his team's zaniness. But even Team Flash is no match for the zany unpredictability of the Trickster, who loves explosive ordinance and a hammy joke.
• Jessica Jones is a dour and snarky detective and her Arch-Enemy is Kilgrave, a theatrical Psychopathic Manchild with a terrible sense of humor.
• Nearly every villain Raylan faces over the course of Justified is bombastic with a flair for the dramatic. Raylan is a stoic man of few words. His opponents suffer from no such restraint:
  • Boyd Crowder (series-long antagonist) is known for his big smile and his silver tongue, and will often give rousing speeches to win over the local populace convincing them that his increasingly violent crimes are in their best interest. Lawmen and criminals alike comment on how Boyd loves to use a ten-dollar word when a two-dollar word would do. Boyd attributes this to all the reading he did in the free time prison allotted him.
  • Mags Bennet (season 2) is also charismatic using her unassuming Southern granny charm to disarm people. That is unless you get on her bad side. Then she'll set off on a scathing rant that will embarrass you enough to want to leave town. She's also known to break out in song on occasion.
  • Wynn Duffy (series-long antagonist) prides himself on being equal parts delightfully charming and frighteningly violent. Most of what he says will make you shake your head and laugh before realizing it was actually a veiled threat. He flips between the two ends of the spectrum so fast that even the fairly unshakeable Raylan visibly can't decide whether to be amused or frightened.
  • Robert Quarles (season 3) often tells an amusing tale complete with bright perky speech and pantomime before unexpectedly murdering someone. He usually does it with an amused look on his face that doesn't quite reach his cold, dead eyes. His hamminess becomes more obvious when he spirals into addiction in the latter half of Season 3 and is reduced to a shouting mess multiple times.
  • Dewey Crowe is an idiot (series-long antagonist). A very loud idiot. But he's also just dangerous enough to cause problems if you underestimate him while you're busy laughing at his flailing and cussing.
  • Arlo, Raylan's father, is a vicious snake in the grass. But he knows that people will kill snakes if they realize they're there. So he uses over-the-top charm to make regular civilians think he's just a harmless old man. We see him tell groan-inducing dad jokes to a young nurse and tell fish stories to detainees at the county jail. But we also know that he tries to murder Raylan, his own son, more than once over the course of the series.
• Law & Order: Organized Crime: Detective Eliot Stabler is stern and gruff in contrast to the extroverted and theatrical mob boss Richard Wheatley.
• The Sandman (2022): Dream of the Endless is stoic, calm, and soft-spoken, rarely raising his voice or moving quickly, while his antagonists such as John Dee, The Corinthian, and Lucifer are all prone to theatrics, sharp quips, and dramatic speeches.
• In Smallville, Clark Kent is about keeping the peace and order and spends most of his time fighting krypto freaks who want to take over the world. Mikhail Mxyzptlk is the exact opposite, using his powers of luck and influence, sometimes for his own personal gain and sometimes just to see what happens.
• Supernatural: A little bit downplayed. The main heroes — the Winchester family and Castiel — all have their goofy sides which show here and there, but in general they're presented as broody, grim, and troubled. By contrast, most of the Big Bads and more of the other villains than not love to ham it up and chew the scenery, with Lucifer and Azazel/Yellow-Eyes (two of the heroes' most personal foes whose actions have ramifications across the entire fifteen-season series) being two prime examples of hammy villains. The heroes' long-term on-off frenemy Crowley is also quite the ham.

Podcasts

• Red Panda Adventures: Due to preferring the tactics of The Cowl, the Red Panda tends to be less hammy and more serious in nature. At most, he veers in the direction of corny more than anything. In contrast, the second supervillain shown in the series, Professor Zombie, was intended to be a Starter Villain, but the sheer hamminess of her actress's performance as she threatened a music hall audience saw her upgraded to recurring villain and eventually a Big Bad in her own right. Other hamtastic villains include the Mad Monkey, the Red Panda's self-proclaimed archnemesis whose Evil Laugh is punctuated by ape grunts, and the Nazi mad scientist Friedrich von Schlitz, who is fond of proclaiming that victory is assured or that one has not heard the last of Friedrich von Schlitz!
  Red Panda: Let's not overdramatise.
  Mad Monkey: This is kind of what I do.
• One of the primary villains in SAYER, a podcast about A.I.s, is a gleefully sadistic Psychopathic Manchild who loves playing DeadlyGames with inferior humans, to contrast (and annoy) the serious, intellectual protagonist.

Video Games

• BlazBlue: The protagonist Ragna is a brooding, easily angered Anti-Hero who wears red and black and is out to kill his Arch-Enemy Yuuki Terumi, a wisecracking, trolling, Ax-Crazy psychopath who wants to throw the world into chaos and gets a kick out of tormenting Ragna (including causing his Dark and Troubled Past).
• Borderlands 2: The Big Bad Handsome Jack is this compared to the rest of the Crimson Raiders and the Vault Hunters from 2. Jack is the wealthy CEO of the most powerful corporation in the world of the game, Hyperion. He loves to flaunt how much of a big deal he is, he's sadistic, narcissistic, hams like there's no tomorrow, and whenever the Crimson Raiders get hit he enjoys the hell out of it. He even has his own town shaped to his image, "Opportunity". The Crimson Raiders and the Vault Hunters from 2, on the other hand, have no big wishes or desires outside of taking down the megalomaniacal Jack and making money as mercenaries. This especially counts for Commander Roland, one of the Vault Hunters from 1, who's the most heroic, no-nonsense and stoic of all the Raiders.
• Deltarune: Kris, although a bit strange, is stoic, quiet, and cynical, never showing any outward reaction to the weirdness of the Dark World. The Arc Villain of Chapter Two is Queen, an Affably Evil Lady Drunk with a Noblewoman's Laugh and a larger-than-life personality, who likes blowing things up and making Big Entrances. Many funny moments are had when Kris and Queen interact, with Kris not even changing their deadpan expression as Queen goes on one of her tangents, leans on their head, or treats them like an old pal.
• By the time of God of War (PS4), Kratos has become significantly Older and Wiser over the course of his new life in Midgard, introducing players to a more stoic and subdued Ghost of Sparta. In stark contrast, the Stranger/Baldur is a clearly unhinged and violent madman who frequently hurls out taunts during battle.
• Like a Dragon: This is the main dynamic between The Stoic Kazuma Kiryu and the Wild Card Goro Majima, with the former being more serious and quiet yakuza with a code of honor, and the latter who's a hammy and unpredictable yakuza who usually rivals with Kiryu and goes after him in a special (and implicit) kind of Stalker with a Crush, especially with the "Majima Everyhere" feature in later games and the two "Kiwami" remakes.
• In Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy Raze and Reicher have this relation. Reicher is immediately friendly and outgoing with Raze who is stoic and reserved even around his companions. Reicher always claims that he has Raze's best interest at heart in making him a stronger opponent, but his overbearing personality is always getting on Raze's nerves.
• In Mega Man (Classic), the protagonist is a robot with the mindset of a young boy devoted to protecting others and promoting everlasting peace. While off the clock, he's polite, task-oriented, and kind. His Arch-Enemy is Dr. Wily, a bombastic Card-Carrying Villain who loves to create giant fortresses and loudly proclaim himself the greatest roboticist in the world while constantly trying to one-up Mega Man's creator, Dr. Light.
• Ryse: Son of Rome: Main villain Emperor Nero is a fat, cowardly despot whose Establishing Character Moment consists of him running through the besieged halls of his palace and hysterically screaming for Rome's legions to defend him. His sons Basileus and Commodus are Royal Brats, the former of whom waxes poetical about his love of watching fights and murder and making gigantic marble statues of his father as a birthday present in a glib, Faux Affably Evil Effeminate Voice and the latter makes grandstanding speeches in solid golden armour in the Coliseum about how much of a glorious general and a god he thinks he is. Main hero Marius Titus, on the other hand, is a dour, deep-voiced, hardened soldier who doesn't mess around when he fights, and only raises his voice when he's about to start threatening someone who really deserves it.
• Super Mario Bros.: More often than not, the straight-laced Mario finds himself at odds with many a larger-than-life foe, such as his longtime archnemesis Bowser, his greedy polar opposite Wario, the Engrish-spouting Fawful, and the deceptively cunning jester Dimentio.
• Undertale: Among the foes that the perpetually poker-faced Human Child/Frisk has to contend with during their adventure in the Underground are Flowey, a smarmy sociopath of a flower with a penchant for Evil Gloating and making terrifying Nightmare Faces, and Mettaton, a Killer Robot with the personality of a game show host and a humanoid form reminiscent of a glam rocker.
• In Warframe, the protagonists are the quiet, deadly serious Tenno who try to maintain some semblance of balance and order in the system by attacking the massive empires of the Grineer and Corpus. The most prominent leaders of both factions are constantly Chewing the Scenery, including Councilor Vay Hek, who is Suddenly Shouting in every other sentence, and Nef Anyo, a greedy Smug Snake who talks like a skeevy televangelist.

Visual Novels

• Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony: Shuichi is the stoic hero to Kokichi's Magnificent Bastard Card-Carrying Villain persona. Shuichi is fully committed to ending the killing game, as very serious and analytical as the Ultimate Detective, coupled with his self-deprecating nature. However, his attempts to solve the various cases are often thwarted by Kokichi just for fun, as he wants to avoid 'boring' things and finds the killing game rather exciting. He often annoys all the other characters with his antics, such as his compulsive lying and insensitive jokes. However, his hammy persona is subverted towards the end, as his last words demonstrate that he truly wants to end the killing game as well, and this, significantly, is not a lie. Tsumugi immediately hams it up after being outed as the true mastermind of the Killing Game.

Web Animation

• The Rhino and the Redbill: Rolo is always giggling (he is a hyena after all) and doesn't put on a serious face while doing his job as a scavenger until the climax, whereas Niles is a Perpetual Frowner that rarely raises his voice even to scream. Red, on the other hand, is a bit more quirky and emotional than his friend, which makes him a fine line between the two.

Webcomics

• One-Punch Man: This is the dynamic between Saitama and (Speed-O-Sound) Sonic. Saitama is a boring Invincible Hero (accentuated in BORING) (well, boring to him anyway) who can't find a suitable opponent that defeats him and finds everything and everyone boring. On the other side, there's Sonic, who's an Evil Is Hammy Ninja who's declared "fast as the speed of sound" who finds Saitama entertaining and he self-declares as The Rival (without being noticed by Saitama).

Western Animation

• The Amazing World of Gumball: Gumball Watterson is a Deadpan Snarker who acts as a common ground in a place as bizarre as Elmore. As such, a lot of the Monsters of the Week that he faces are silly and hammy to coincide with the strange place that they all live in.
• No matter the incarnation, Ben 10 is always far more reserved (unless he turns into Rath or Atomix) than the megalomaniacs he fights (the exceptions to this being Aggregor and Diagon)
• Ducktales 2017: Scrooge McDuck is a savvy businessman and Experienced Protagonist who believes in hard work over all else, while his business competitor Flintheart Glomgold spends most of his time and money on evil schemes to take down/kill Scrooge that fall prey to Complexity Addiction. Scrooge mainly sees Glomgold as a nuisance more than a real threat. Their dynamic is perhaps best captured here. Zig-Zagged since Glomgold has moments of Beware the Silly Ones, particularly in Season 2, and Scrooge sometimes takes his bait, such as during their staring contest in "The Infernal Internship of Mark Beaks".
• Gravity Falls: Dipper Pines, with his dark blue vest and personality that is most of the time serious and at odds with his age (12-going-to-13 years), contrasts with both of the show's main antagonists, Lil' Gideon Gleeful and Bill Cipher. In Gideon's case, with his sassy-like style of outfit and wimpiness over facing defeat, and in Bill's case, with a bright yellow body that glows while he talks and Trickster God tendencies. In both of their cases, they invoke Evil Is Hammy.
• Kim Possible: Kim is The Ace who takes crime-fighting in stride, while most of her villains, like Dr. Drakken and the Seniors, are Affably Evil or Faux Affably Evil with ridiculous, over-the-top schemes. She can have her moments of Not So Stoic in her high school life, however when facing bad guys, she is far more mature and serious. This is especially in play when she faces Dr. Drakken, who often comes up with various ridiculous plots, such as mind-controlling the elderly into his army.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Upon his debut, Discord is a Large Ham Spirit of Chaos, bent on spreading chaos all over the land and causing, well, discord towards mission-driven Twilight Sparkle and her friends.
• Phineas and Ferb: Dr. Doofenshmirtz is as hammy as a Mad Scientist can possibly be, often shouting his sentences and always planning some sort of Zany Scheme, each more ridiculous than the last. Perry the Platypus, his Archenemy, on the other hand, is The Stoic who never speaks, rarely smiles, and acts as the rational one between him and Doof.
• The Powerpuff Girls: All three members of the titular Powerpuff Girls can be emotional, especially Bubbles, but they can be more serious than some of the hammiest villains they face off against.
• The Real Ghostbusters: Downplayed for the Boogieman. He's certainly hammy (with lines like "What's that? FEAR! Delicious, delicious fear!"), but out of his enemies the Ghostbusters, only one of them (Egon) is stoic (the others are a Deadpan Snarker, a Genki Guy, and a normal guy). That said, Egon is the one who bumps heads with him the most due to him having met the Boogieman as a kid.
• Samurai Jack: The titular hero is a stoic and honorable samurai whose noble deeds speak louder than words. Meanwhile, his arch-nemesis, the shapeshifting demon known as Aku, is loud and bombastic, providing plenty of humor as much as horror.
• In The Venture Brothers, the Monarch is the hammy Card-Carrying Villain prone to over-the-top speeches and classic "dramatic" villainy foil to Rusty Venture's "hero". Rusty, a jaded former boy adventurer, has Seen It All and the Monarch's villainous theatrics do little more than annoy him. For the first several seasons, Rusty barely acknowledged the Monarch as anything more than the rest of his Rogues Gallery constantly disrupting his life while Monarch has always considered Rusty to be his true Arch-Enemy.

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