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alt title(s): Big Ham 
"''I will be above god someday! In fact, I am almost there! Don't be down, you mediocre nobodies! I'm just too awesome! There is nothing in this world more precious than Me! Very soon you'll see a mandorla above my head!
Ridiculously larger-than-life character, often a mentor to one of the regulars. Typically played by a guest star with an Internet Movie Database listing longer than the rest of the cast put together. Full of energy, joie de vivre and nothing but line readings and dramatic gestures that can shake a scene to pieces. Often a key redeeming element in shows that are So Bad Its Good.
The first line from the Large Ham will be dramatic, portentous, often just before the act break and can almost always be replaced with: "Did somebody order A LARGE HAM?". Try it at home; it's fun.
Practically defined by: BRIAN BLESSED in Britain, William Shatner... in America!, and Norio Wakamoto in Japan. Often a character trait of the Boisterous Bruiser, usually with No Indoor Voice, and often cast as a One Scene Wonder. Having an outrageous appearance is helpful but not a requirement.
The origin of the term is unclear: is either from the use of hamfat as a cheap make-up remover in the old days of theatre, or because "ham" serves as short for "amateur"; Leslie Charteris stated it derived from " Hamlet" in a The Saint short story.
An equivalent term in Japanese is "daikon", meaning a very large white radish. Anime characters frequently order hot blood with their Large Ham. Contrast Bad Bad Acting, where the acting isn't nearly as energetic. A Large Ham may occasionally be Crazy Awesome. They also greatly relish a " This! Is! SPARTA!!!" moment whenever it crops up. Villainous Hams also enjoy getting Drunk On The Dark Side. A Smug Super relishes showing off their power this way.
One of the United Kingdom's most active export industries. If a character is depicted as an American in a BBC series, he's likely to be one of these. If there seem to be several large hams on screen at the same time, you may be watching a World Of Ham. If in a few scenes many Large Hams come together, the likely result is Ham To Ham Combat.
When this is Narm, the large hams are likely to have come from Hillshire Narm (Go Keet!) But more often these actors are Narm Charm.
Compare Melodrama, Ham And Cheese, Milking The Giant Cow, Feed Me, Level Breaker, Camp.
Examples:
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Anime
Comic Books
- Doom is displeased that people think he overacts. Doom NEVER underacts
 . Doom is also displeased that some one-shot video-game tie-in lout is calling himself DOOM in the third person! There is only one DOOM - Doctor DOOM! These are clearly plots by that perfidious dolt REED RICHARDS!!
- Lampshaded during the Onslaught saga; Joseph was telling Captain America about being rescued by someone and Cap interrupted to say he knew it was Dr. Doom. When Joseph asked how Cap knew that, Cap's answer was "Frankly, the entrance line alone told me that much."
- Also lampshaded during a cameo appearance in The Amazing Spider Man, in which Doom expresses displeasure at being escorted through the public terminal of an airport due to mechanical difficulties:
Doom: Typical shoddy American workmanship. Such incompetence would not be permitted in the Latveria of — DOCTOR DOOM.
Guard: How do you do that?
Doom: Do what?
Guard: Speak in all capitals like that?
Doom: Silence, minion.
- In an essay about his run on Fantastic Four, Mark Waid once noted that "you know you've Doom's voice down when every single sentence contains at least one pompous adjective."
- Norman Osborn has shown surprising talent for this trope when he recently staged an attack by the Green Goblin on Air Force Onel. It's filled with such delightfully hammy lines as "GET BEHIND ME MR. PRESIDENT!" and "No Goblin! What YOU need is YOUR GLIDER!"
- Super-strong characters tend to get this way, especially those who are gods. Marvel has Hercules and Thor; DC has Orion of the New Gods.
- Destruction of the Endless, who was modeled after BRIAN BLESSED!
- "I am GALACTUS... And I HUNGER!"
- When Stan Lee was still writing comics, he wrote every character this way. Lee himself has shared his love of ham on many occasions. "EXCELSIOR!"
- Pick a Jack Kirby character. Any Jack Kirby character.
- And when Lee and Kirby collaborated, it was something to behold.
- Falstaff (again) in the Seven Soldiers of Victory story from Leading Comics #14, "The Bandits from the Books." In a story where everyone talks in all capitals and ends their sentences with exclamation points, his dialogue is in bigger, bolder type with more exclamation points. He even does a What Do You Mean Its Not Awesome about eating a banana.
- A rare instance where the narrator is a Large Ham occurs in Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers: Frankenstein.
- "All in a day's work...for FRANKENSTEIN!"
- The X-Men villain Mojo. Even in the Ultimate Universe where he's human. If the Joker were a fat, alien media tycoon, this is who you'd get.
- Rasputin in Hellboy has a tendency to ham it up even when he's losing. In his final appearance, as a ghost, he was shouting a hysterical tirade at a god. She didn't take it too well.
- Empowered's Caged Demonwolf. He spends all of his time as a voice emanating from the alien power-draining bondage gear he's stuck in, but even as a talking inanimate object, he has the biggest speech balloons and an endless supply of Expospeak Gags. The sinister, sealed sovereign's hammery rivals that of blessed Brian himself!
- Spidey gets to ham it up and have fun doing so in his Marvel Adventures team up with Doctor Strange. In fact, the level of ham becomes essential in bluffing a Cosmic Horror, who is blind and can't see how small the "Great Hidden One Known As The Spider Man" is.
- For that matter, Strange himself, on many occasions.
- The Blue Blade from The Twelve or, as he would announce, "The Bluuuue Blaaaaaade!!!", was an Errol Flynn wannabe, with the camp elements of his original design turned up to eleven for laughs.
- Sergei Korolev is like this in public in the graphic novel Laika ("All because of that lying b*stard, GLUSHKO!"), but in private, it turns out he's actually much quieter and very sad.
- The Joker, especially in the comics code Authority days, pretty much thrives on this trope.
- Haazen from Knights Of The Old Republic is one; during that sequence when he reveals his evil plan and blows up the courtyard with the fleet he screams "Let the Fire of Truth Rain Down."
- Deadpool.
Fan Fic
- Every time Shinji Ikari gets into Ham Mode in Shinji And Warhammer 40 K, expect a Crowning Moment Of Funny or a Crowning Moment Of Awesome. More frequently, the latter.
- The Ocarina of Time parody "Group of Weirdoes: Ocarina of Time" turns the Barinade into one of these. Like the above, it is both funny and awesome.
- Recent chapters have added a second ham in the form of Morpha, though he's more of a Small Ham as he merely uses exclamation points instead of periods, whereas Barinade talks LIKE BRIAN BLESSED!!!
- Dark Yagami of Light And Dark The Adventures Of Dark Yagami gets quite hammy as King of the Shinigami, often making use of Dramatic Ellipsis with a booming "kingish" voice, as he seems dedicated to acting the part.
- Colonel Nick "Havoc" Parker, when he isn't blowing up Avatars, rescuing GDI prisoners, and recapturing the White House with a couple of tanks is a gigantic, One Ham Army.
Film
- Jim Carrey
- Liar Liar has just gems as: "I HOLD MYSELF IN CONTEMPT! WHY SHOULD YOU BE ANY DIFFERENT?"
- Count Olaf from the movie version of Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events was a Master Of Disguise, but also a Large Ham - not just because Carrey played him that way, but because within the story itself Olaf is supposed to be a Large Ham.
- The Grinch also serves.
- Ace Ventura. "ALLLLL RIGHTY THEN!"
- The Mask was a shy guy who got turned into a Large Ham by Applied Phlebotinum. "Sssssssmokin'!"
- In Batman Forever, he played the Riddler, and tried to out-ham comedian Frank Gorshin, who played the role on the Adam West Batman TV series. Given that another trope is named for one of his lines in that movie, it would seem he succeeded.
- Carrey's acting in Batman Forever was once described as "transcend[ing] considerations of good or bad acting into sheer weirdness". "Weird", in this case, means...well...ham.
- CCCCCAAAAAABBBBBBLLLLLLEEEEEE GUY.
- Jim Carrey in anything, really. "Understated" is not in his repertory. As one outtake of Liar Liar goes:
Swoosie Kurtz: Your Honor, I object!
Carrey: You would!
Kurtz: Overactor!
Carrey: Jezeb—! (collapses in laughter as the entire "courtroom" bursts out)
Kurtz: He [indicating the director?] put me up to it! It wasn't my idea! He told me to do it!
Carrey: (mugging for the camera even though it's clearly not getting into the movie) ...oh no! They're onto me!
- Subverted in Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind. Arguably The Truman Show and Man on the Moon hinted towards his toned-down performances, but Eternal Sunshine was entirely against usual type for Jim.
- And with Man on the Moon brought up, Jim gets moments of ham in there too — Andy Kaufman, after all, loved creating and inhabiting Large Ham personas such as Tony Clifton and the Intergender Wrestling Champion of the World, so the role(s) requires someone who understands the art of going over the top.
- Harry Potter films
- Kenneth Brannagh as Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, another character actually required by the story to be a Large Ham.
- Summed up beautifully by none other than Mike Nelson in the Rifftrax commentary as Kenneth first appears; "Treat your family to the bold flavor of traditional Northern Irish HAM".
- Though rumor has it he, Alan Rickman (Snape), and Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy) had a friendly competition on the set to see who could ham it up the most.
- Same goes for Bellatrix.
- Strangely, Voldemort, particularly in Goblet of Fire. It's easy to see the fun Ralph Fiennes is having.
- Michael Gambon as Dumbledore. He doesn't chew the scenery; he devours it whole, spits it out, and then devours it again.
- "SIIIIIIILEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNCEEEEEEE!"
- Shirley Henderson as the hammiest Ghost in Hogwarts, Moaning Myrtle.
Moaning Myrtle: "I'm Moaning Myrtle! I wouldn't expect you to know me! Who would ever want to talk about ugly, miserable, moping, Moaning Myrtle? AHHHHHHHHHH!"
- It's a small role, but Miriam Margolyes is nearly intolerable as Professor Sprout.
- Brendan Gleeson as Mad-Eye Moody, between character voice, exaggerated motions, and mentoring role, fits the bill perfectly.
- Not to mention Gary Oldman's somewhat hamtastic turn as Sirius Black. "I would have DIED Peter! I would have DIED rather than BETRAY MY FRIENDS!!!!!" He calmed down considerably in the fifth movie.
- Why hasn't Professor Trelawney been mentioned yet:"In THIS room, YOU shall discover if YOU possess THE SIGHT!"
- Kenneth Branagh
- Any of his own adaptations of Shakespeare. Much Ado About Nothing being a prime example.
- Hamlet is also notable. He plays Hamlet, and so we get to hear him do the speech on how actors should act and be a Large Ham during it; we get to see him saw the air while urging the actors not to. This makes that speech more hilarious than was probably intended.
- His 1930s-set musical version of Love's Labours Lost is full of hams, the biggest being Timothy Spall's Don Armado. His Cole Porter bit must be seen to be believed.
- Branagh was even hammier as Dr. Loveless in Wild Wild West. "Don't yew just haaaate it when thay-ut happens?" complete with 720 degrees of eye-rolling.
- His performance in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, playing the titular character. His mother dies and he feels compelled to look up the ceiling shrieking "THIS MUST NOT HAPPENNNNNNN!"
- Branagh is credited for his understated and completely straight role in Rabbit Proof Fence, where he portrays his character as far more chilling and frightening than he ever could achieve by feeding on large hams.
- Michael Keaton
- John Rhys-Davies
- Superman
- Kevin Spacey's Lex Luthor in Superman Returns.
- Gene Hackman's Luthor in Superman II also serves, even if the next example is the biggest ham in the movie.
- Superman nemesis Zod. One has to almost kneel before him in respect of his vast arsenal of over-the-top bluster.
- Whole websites have been devoted to the glorious OTTness of Terrence Stamp's portrayal of Zod as a vain, short-tempered and sometimes rather bored aristocratic psycho. So indelible was Stamp's rendition (which bore little resemblance to the comic character on whom it was based) that most subsequent comic versions of Zod have been negatively received due to their lack of similarity to Stamp's characterisation. Recently they just gave up and reintroduced the "real" Zod in the direct likeness of Stamp's persona.
- Speaking of Stamp, his tranny character in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert had a lot more to do with Ham than it did with Camp.
- Batman and The Dark Knight Saga
- Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face in Batman Forever. (And the other villain, Riddler, was the already discussed Jim Carrey... amazingly, Jones manages to out-ham Jim Carrey. Ponder that for a moment.)
- What's to ponder? TLJ can chew the scenery with the best of them. Heck, even his performance in The Fugitive feels hammy even though he never raises his voice.
- "This is my happy face!"
- Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr Freeze in Batman And Robin. "Ice to see you." It didn't work as well as intended, but may have been the one performance that kept the film in the So Bad Its Good camp.
- Christian Bale as the caped crusader himself in the new Dark Knight Trilogy. That voice must require some serious throat pastilles afterwards, and notice how he can't keep it up when he seems out of breath?
- Jack Nicholson as the Joker, though really, that's practically a prerequisite for playing the character. The number of Feed Me lines...
- Has Jack Nicholson ever not been hammy?
- Going by The Witches of Eastwick, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and The Shining, probably not. Basically, if there's a role that requires bombast and hamminess, he'll be there.
- YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!
- Wait, Jack Nicholson actually plays characters? I always thought it was the other way round...
- Heath Ledger's Joker is also sadistically wonderful, funny and terrifying at the same time. And hammy.
- "What do you believe in, huh? WHADDA YOU BELIEVE IN!?" "I believe that whatever doesn't kill you...simply makes you stranger." It's not often the Nietzsche Wannabe mangles an actual Nietzsche quote.
- And if the rumours are correct, there's a very sad and tragic side to that. According to some accounts Ledger was intentionally overdoing it in the hope of getting fired from the film.
- ?!?!?!?!?!?
- Hell, if you want to put it that way, anytime the Joker is played by anyone, the actor is going to find himself unleashing the Hog...
- Considering the Joker is on both the Comics and Western Animation (and indirectly, Live Action TV) sections... Overacting with a Nietzsche Wannabe Monster Clown is pretty easy.
- Not to mention Danny DeVito's Penguin. "I AM NOT A HUMAN BEING! I AM AN ANIMAL! COOOOOLD BLOODED! CRRANK THE AC!"
- Hey, DeVito in almost anything as well. From Mars Attacks!: "ROOOOLEEEEEXXXXXX!"
- Don't forget Get Shorty, where he was a ham playing a ham...playing a ham.
- James Bond villains
- Jonathan Pryce as Elliot Carver in Tomorrow Never Dies. Whatever scenery his mooks don't riddle with bullets or blast into a million pieces, he cheerfully chows down on like there's no... well, tomorrow. And the movie is, arguably, the better for it.
- Gustav Graves from Die Another Day.
- Max Zorin from A View To A Kill, played as a psychotic yuppie by Christopher Walken.
- And who could forget General Orlov from Octopussy? His Feed Me briefing scene near the beginning of the movie combines the speech patterns of William Shatner, the volume levels of BRIANBLESSED, and a truly awful accent to form the essence of Ham.
- To clarify: this was awesome.
- "Man has climbed Mount Everest, gone to the bottom of the ocean. He's fired rockets at the Moon, split the atom, achieved miracles in every field of human endeavor... EXCEPT CRIME!!!" The Hammiest Ham that Ever Hammed.
- And who can forget "NO, Mister Bond, I expect you to DIE!"?
- One wonders at what the movie would've been like if Goldfinger had been played by BRIANBLESSED, though that may have caused the universe to implode from the super-dense ham.
- While Yaphet Kotto played a relatively mellow Dr.Kananga in Live And Let Die, Kananga's alter ego, Mr. Big, is a pretty Big ham (hur hur hur), with lines like "DID YOU TOUCH HER??!!" belted with feeling.
- "Names is for tombstones, baby! You take this honky out and waste him!
- Exception: Sean Bean played a low-key villain in Goldeneye.
- Fortunately, the hamjitsu was conserved by the impressively loud Boris (played by the INVINCIBLE! Alan Cumming).
- Don't forget Le Chiffre in Casino Royale, who was low-key most of the time, except when he corrects Bond's statement that he won't be safe if he tortures Bond to death.
Le Chiffre: YOU! ARE SOOO WRONG!!! *point*
- Dominic Greene in Quantum Of Solace is a restrained ham struggling to break free.
- Star Wars
- Emperor Palpatine was like this in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, but substantially more subdued in the first two prequels. Then he was in Revenge of the Sith, where any given line he says after the second act is pure, unadulterated ham. And he's still a fairly effective bad guy. I guess he stopped caring about self-restraint once he conquered the entire galaxy.
-
What about (UNACCEPTABLE!) Wass abot Jar Jar Binks! *shudder*
- Boss Nass. Voiced by BRIAN BLESSED.
- Three words: Jabba The Hutt! "BO SHUDA!".
- Star Trek
- Christopher Plummer as General Chang in Star Trek VI. His Crowning Moment of Ham-osity has to be the bit near the end where his ship is pummeling the crap out of Enterprise, and he's having total blast, bellowing Shakespeare, while twirling around in his motorized Captain's chair. Hamtacular.
"Cry HAVOC!!! And let slip the dogs hams of war!!"
- Noted in Shatner's book Star Trek Movie Memories, where a photo of him and Plummer laughing at a flub in the courtroom scene has a caption describing the two as "Hamosauruses".
- And how can we forget Ricardo Montalban as KHAAAAAN!!!
- Interestingly enough, his first take on the character was even hammier, and the director asked him to dial it down to make the times he did rant and rave feel more powerful.
- Daniel Day-Lewis
- Tim Curr
ied ham y
- For a perfect example, watch him having far too much fun playing evil wizard Trymon in The Colour of Magic.
- I'm just a sweet transvestite... From Transexual, Transylvaniaaaaa...
- Totally enjoying himself, even under the tons of brilliant make-up and prosthetics, as the quite literal Evil incarnate in Legend: "Oh, Mother Night! Fold your dark arms about me. Protect me in your black embrace. I sit alone, an impotent exile, whilst this form, this presence, returns to torment me!" And what's more, he also manages to remain genuinely imposing and scary all through the whole hamned thing, to boot! "Every wolf suffers fleas. 'Tis easy enough to scratch!"
- As Cardinal Richelieu (what's up with Cardinals being such awesome characters?) in 1993's The Three Musketeers, is what Tim Curry's all about:
Queen: "I would rather die!"
Richelieu: "THAT CAN BE ARRANGED!!
Richelieu: "One for all ... and more for meeee!"
- Cardinals are awesome and usually evil characters for the same reason that viziers are (as Terry Pratchett points out in Pyramids!). Aside from some specific qualification tests during the initial interview, Narrativium radiation ensures that they are usually the power behind the throne, who wish to make sure that the throne is occupied by someone with all the ambition of a freshly-purchased gym sock.
- In a little-known but oddly enjoyable little film called Pass the Ammo, Curry
shines glitters as a crooked evangelist. Let me repeat that: Tim. Curry. as...an evangelist.
- An evangelist from the Deep South to boot.
- And he's the Lord Wizard in The Worst Witch. He even gets a very 1980's MTV-style music video. That lasts ten minutes.
- He fails the Opening Line test in Annie, where the first time he opens his mouth results not in an opening line, but a Rooster's crow.
- Oiiiilllll and griiiimmmmme! Poiiiiiissonn sluddddge! Dieeeessssel cloudss and noxxxiouss muck!
- Who's the best part of the otherwise forgettable film The Pebble And The Penguin? And who gets the best song? Just guess. "Hope you can swim better than you can (mocking Hubie's stuttering) t-t-t-TALK!"
- Heck, he even hams it up in Muppet Treasure Island as Long John Silver. "Professional Pirate" is a particularly fun example.
- "No one controls my mind, Shadow! There's a new world order coming, and I'm gonna be a king! A KING!"
- Speaking of which.... Ever see Beauty And The Beast Enchanted Christmas? Forte has to be one of the only good things about that movie. Just listen to Don't Fall In Love and you'll see what the ham can do.
- As well as a helping of finest imitation Russian ham in Command And Conquer: Red Alert 3. "I am going to the one place uncorrupted by capitalism... SPAAACE!"
- There's also the short-lived 1997 sitcom Over The Top. As the title clearly indicates, the show was about a character Tim played who just happened to be a Large Ham.
- Think about this: it's very likely that Curry was such a large ham, he was too hammy to be the voice of the Joker in Batman The Animated Series.
- According to Bruce Timm, it was more about Curry getting throat problems from doing the voice. In other words, he was so hammy it physically hurt him.
- Then there's Clue, where he played the butler:
Wadsworth: "That's what we're TRYING to figure out! We're trying to figure out who killed who, WHERE AND WITH WHAT!
Professor Plum: "There's no need to shout."
Wadsworth: "I'M NOT SHOUTING!" (pause) "All right I am! I'm SHOUTING, I'M SHOUTING, I'M SHOUT—"
- It verges on the territory of Nightmare Fuel, but Mr. Curry as Pennywise the Dancing
Clown Ham required descent into Large Ham territory.
- Gabriel Knight is a very scary Ham.
- George C. Scott
- Richard O'Brien
- Al Pacino
- Al Pacino has been delivering Large Ham performances for, oh, the past decade or two. Some particular gems:
- Scent of a Woman ("If I were the man I was five years ago I'd take a FLAME-THROWER to this place!" "HOO-AH! I'm just getting warmed up!"), and Heat ("cause she's got a... GREAT ASS! And you got your head... ALL THE WAY UP IT!" "I had COFFEE with McCauley... HALF AN HOUR AGO!")
- The reason for that is, after being passed over for numerous Oscars, he finally got one for Scent of a Woman due to the hammy speech at the end. He's stuck with the formula since.
- I saw the trailer for a movie called City Hall and chose not to watch it because the trailer showed me all I needed. "I choose to FIGHT BACK!!!!!1111one... until this city is a palace again!"
- Pacino as Big Boy Caprice in Dick Tracy is a ham large enough to choke Godzilla.
- As the Devil in The Devils Advocate, Pacino would only take the part if he got to do a ten minute rant in the film's climax. Upon hearing that, the producers must have looked at each other, shrugged, and said; "Do whatever the hell you want, Al!" Cue Satan Breaking The Fourth Wall as he dips a finger into holy water, boiling it.
- How can we discuss Pacino's legendary Hammy acting without bringing up Scarface? Practically every line of spoken dialog by Tony Montana is Ham, and the movie wouldn't have been half as good without it (though that probably goes for all of Pacino's roles)
- "SAAAAAAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEEEEEEND"
Other Hams On The Menu:
- The entire Barrymore family are the original Large Hams. Example: John Barrymore in Twentieth Century: I CLOSE THE IRON DOOR ON YOU!
- Their prominence is all the more impressive considering it was an age when being a Large Ham was practically a requirement to appear in movies.
- Billy Crystal loves to scream. A lot.
- Robert DeNiro as Max Cady in Cape Fear. His Captain Shakespeare of the movie adaptation of Stardust belongs here as well — that cancan REEKS of ham (and you can just tell he loves every second of it).
- Since Alan Rickman was mentioned in Harry Potter, this page can't be complete without mentioning Hans Gruber and the Sheriff of Nottingham.
- Gruber's actually something of an anti-Ham; until the end of the movie, he was viewed as much more restrained than the typical action movie bad guy.
- Robert Preston. The Music Man, Victor/Victoria, The Last Starfighter...
- In Ang Lee's 2003 Hulk, Nick Nolte chews the set. Literally. After shouting a monologue at Eric Bana, he picks up a cable and bites it◊.
- Captain Hector Barbossa from the Pirates Of The Caribbean films. Even the character seems to be deliberately cultivating his exceptional, rum-laced ham, right down to the slightly unhinged Evil Laugh he repeatedly indulges in. And the bit where he goes "Aaar!"
- Indeed, one of the best parts of the first movie is watching Geoffrey Rush and Johnny Depp try to out-ham one another.
- "Dearrly beloved, we be gathered here today, to nail your gizzards to the mast, you poxy cur!"
- Of course, as mentioned above, Captain Jack Sparrow. It gets even worse when he is Talking To Himself in the third movie.
- Don't forget Davy Jones, specially with that weird accent. DAMN YOU, TV TROPEEEEESSSS!
- Hannibal Lecter as played by Anthony Hopkins. (Brian Cox, less so.)
- Dracula, in many of his appearances - most of them aping the original Hampire, the man, the myth, Bela Lugosi.
Dracula: I have charrrrtered a ship to take us to Eengland. Ve vill be leeeaving....tomorrow....eeeee-ven-inng.
Dracula: Excellent, Mis-ter...Ren-field...
Dracula: I neeever drink.......wine.
- And taken to parodistic extremes by Richard Roxburgh's turn as the Count in Van Helsing.
Dracula: Nooo!!! I HAVE NO HEART! I feeeel no pain! No love! No...sorrow...I...am...HOLLOW...and I vill liive....forever! It's a bad sign when the Big Bad opens his mouth, and all you can think of is how many Linkin Park albums he owns.
- Then there's Moulin Rouge, where Roxburgh's villainous Duke is the largest ham in a movie stuffed with them (although Jim Broadbent gives him a fair run for the money).
- The fact the two of them got to sing "Like A Virgin" together absolutely cements their oversized porcine status.
- Ray Winstone in Beowulf, although that's pretty clearly part of the character. A little more creepily, Crispin Glover as Grendel.
- And who could forget the most succulent ham of them all, Robert Newton in Treasure Island?
- James Robertson Justice. A Ham so Large, he was Brian Blessed and John Rhys-Davies combined, in virtually every single role he performed (including the cheese commercials!).
- Charlton Heston in every movie he was in, especially as Moses.
- ANY movie John Agar is in. And watching him is like getting hit in the face OVER AND OVER by a large ham.
- Peter Cullen returning as the voice of Optimus Prime in Transformers. BEFORE TIME BEGAN, THERE WAS A LARGE HAM!
- I'd call him more 'epic' than hammy, which is why the line "Bumblebee, stop lubricating the man" is funny.
- Correct. The proper term for what Peter "Optimus" Cullen has isn't ham, its gravitas. See the first episode of The Colbert Report for details on the subject.
- Though David Letterman took all advantage from Cullen's/Optimus' hamminess in a Top Ten List.
- If anything, Megatron is the ham here:
- One simply cannot forget Jetfire in Revenge of the Fallen, especially his line about his father (the first wheel, apparently) transforming into, "NOTHING! But he did so with honour! Dignity!" or his introduction: "Behold... the eternal glory of... Jetfire!
- And for a non-Serkis Folk example, John Turturro ("Ooh. Nokia's are real nasty. You've gotta respect the Japanese. They know the way of the samurai." *
- a character points out "Nokia's from Finland." and another reminds "Yes, but he's, you know, a little strange." ), particularly in Revenge of the Fallen where he is free from MIB constraints.
- "ONE MAN! ALONE! ABANDONED BY THE COUNTRY HE LOVES!"
- James Rethrick in Paycheck exclaims "Still think you can change your fate, Mike!? I AM A FUTURE MIKE!!".
- Rupert Everett is incredibly hammy, and is the perfect example of camp 'luvvie' actors who are classically trained but pretty pretentious and deluded as to their talent.
- Jeremy Irons in Dungeons And Dragons, possibly a result of being the only actor in the movie who realized how silly the whole thing was - and just going with it.
- He was also pretty hammy in Eragon, probably for the same reason, though he was still the best actor in the movie.
- Irons and DeVito both hammed it up on Sesame Street in cameos during the song Put Down The Duckie
- From Roger Ebert's review of the 2002 version of The Time Machine: "[Guy] Pearce, as the hero, makes the mistake of trying to give a good and realistic performance. Irons at least knows what kind of movie he's in, and hams it up accordingly."
- Speaking of eyebrows, those of us with young children can take some relief in the fact that
ManHAMdy Patinkin saw fit to have fun with his role as the villain in Elmo's Adventures in Grouchland.
Who said that? Who dares challenge my evil ways?
- Marlon Brando in some of his films.
- Marlon Brando started dishing out large servings of ham almost as soon as he started getting lead roles.
- Stellaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
- And if he wasn't hammy, it's likely because he simply didn't give a damn (the Superman movies)
-
SamHAMuel L. Jackson in Snakes On A Plane. The film would only be half as enjoyable if he played his role "straight".
- Willem Dafoe. The Green Goblin. "THINK ABOUT IT, HERO!" and "Sleeeeeep!" come to mind. The performance can charitably be described as "operatic".
- "WE'LL MEET AGAIN, SPIDAH-MAAAAAAAAAAN!" And don't forget Doc Ock in the second film. "You have a train to catch."
- Don't forget J. Jonah
JamHAMeson, played with gusto by J.K. Simmons. I guess that batch of "Christmas meat" was ham...
- And further proving villains are a fun role, Eddie Brock/Venom. "I like being bad. It makes me happy."
- Virtually anybody in Speed Racer, but in particular Pops ("Terrible what passes for a ninja these days"), Royalton ("Do you want to become a real race car driver?! Then SIGN that contract!"), and impressively, eight-year-old Spritle.
- KING LEONIDAS from 300...who alternates between speaking softly...AND! VERY! LOUDLY!
- Ephialtes and Xerxes were pretty hammy, too. (A particular scene of the latter's earned a "Ham alert! Ham alert" in 300's RiffTrax)
- Let's not give Dwayne Johnson, a.k.a. "The Rock" a free pass. From The Rundown to Doom, hammy till the cows come home. Not that that's a bad thing, but it's pretty hilarious in every single case (the best being Be Cool, specially his "acting showoff").
Can you SMEEEEEELL what The Rock is COOOOKIIIIING?!
- Yes, and it's a big thick ham steak, wrapped in bacon and stuffed into a suckling pig with a can of Spam in its mouth. Served on a plate of porkchops.
- The Rock's mother didn't like him using the word "ass" (during his general promo about "turn[ing] that sumbitch sideways and sticking it straight up your candy ass!")... so one time, he changed it to "straight up... your RECTUM."
- Let's not forget his work in the masterful Southland Tales. "I'm a pimp... and pimps... don't. Commit. Suicide."
- Oliver Reed in Gladiator. I can't think of any ham-related puns based on his name.
- YOU SOLD ME...QUEER GIRAFFES.
- Both the villains of Space Mutiny. One of them is extremely easy to amuse ("Remember Carl's blond joke?") and seems to think that acting is entirely based on scrunching up your forehead ("Come on, skull, pop out of my head!"). The other is unnaturally intense and always hisses.
"I'm surrounded by INCOMPETENCE! I'm being undermined by my own disciples!"
- Jellon Lamb. Or perhaps, Jellon Ham.
"He sitssss up there, in those melancholy hills. Some say he SLUMBERS DEEP, like the KRAKEN! The troopers will never catch him! So... I... wait, Mr. Murphy. I wait."
- Or his even more delightful line, which is censored not because it's a spoiler, but because of how offensive it is,. "What is an Irishman... but a nigger turned inside out?"
- Faye Dunaway, burying herself in the character and a very Large Ham, as Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest. "NO. MORE. WIRE. HANGERS!!!"
- Creeeeeeeeeedence Léonore Guilgud from Troll 2, incapable of not extending a word to epic proportions, and playing up the creepy witch Depraved Bisexual angle for everything it's worth. As Rifftrax so memorably put it: "This is community college draaaaaaaaama class!".
- Dorothy Lamour commenting on making the Road To... pictures with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope: "I felt like a wonderful sandwich, a slice of white bread between two slices of ham."
- Vincent Price is another classic example. For a particularly thick slice, check out one of his own particular favorites: Professor Ratigan in The Great Mouse Detective.
- Justified in Theatre Of Blood, where his character is a murderous actor. A HAMMY murderous actor.
- His monologue at the begining of the song Black Widow by Alice Cooper is nothing short of hamtastic. Same goes for his rap in Michael Jackson's Thriller.
- Another amazing example is The Abominable Dr. Phibes, where Price chews the scenery without even opening his mouth.
- Price was always the right side of ham though, as his passion for acting and captivating voice and mannerisms helped him stop becoming cheesy.
- Bear in mind he also played Egghead in the 60's Batman series, delivering a fine meal of ham and eggs.
- In His Kind Of Woman, Price plays an Errol Flynn-style movie star who, when confronted with real mortal danger from mobsters, gets a huge rush from it, and leaps into the fray shouting out Shakespeare with extra ham - he even wears a thespian cape!
- Just about everybody with a name from the Super Mario Brothers movie gets to ham it up now and again (Toad's guitar playing for one), but Dennis Hopper as King Koopa stands out above all the rest. "Bobomb..."
- Joan Cusack in School Of Rock, although Jack Black outhams her in that film.
- But can you name a role where Jack Black isn't being hammy? (only Shallow Hal comes to my mind)
- He was also remarkably subdued on his guest spot in the X-Files, despite playing himself again.
- Also subdued in King Kong and The Holiday.
- Ironically, Black's liberal use of ecstasy while filming King Kong was likely a great contributor to his down-to-earth performance.
- Also, Joan Cusack as the nanny in The Addams Family second move. Don't I deserve love... and jewelry?!
- "That's not what I wanted! That's not who I was! I was a ballerina! GRACEFUL! DELICATE!"
- Chris Farley in Tommy Boy.
- In anything. He hammed 'til the
cows pigs came home in every role. Especially in Beverly Hills Ninja.
- An exceptionally fabulous ham can be found in The 5,000 Fingers Of Dr. T, another Seuss story;
Hams Hans Conried plays the doctor with the relish of a thousand Burger Fools and the camp of a hundred Mardi Gras. The man made pointing downwards epic. And there's this line:
Dr. Terwilliker: We shall play the most beautiful piece ever written. I wrote it.
Dr. Terwilliker: I want him disintegrated. ATOM... by ATOM!!!!!"
- "HOW'DITGETBURNED?HOW'DITGETBURNEDHOW'DITGETBUUUUUUUUURNED?!?"
- "OH GOD... OH JESUS CHRIIIST!!!"
- Nicolas Cage gets some love here. His entire performance in the movie Ghost Rider was full of ham, but the hammiest scene of all has to be the transformation. You know, raiiiiiiseeeeeeee fooooooottttt...... STEP! Raiiiiiiiiseeeeeee..... STEP! *MANIACAL LAUGHTER!!!!!!!*
- "Inconceivable!"
- To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar was the proverbial feast of a thousand hams. Every lead actor was salted, cured, and hickory-smoked. And it was delicious.
- Jack Palance could go from quiet, breathy ham to loud, bombastic ham in the blink of an eye.
- Half the cast of Oceans Eleven and its sequels, with special mention going to Elliot Gould as Reuben Tishkoff and Don Cheadle as Basher Tarr.
- Meet the Fockers has a tag team of Large Hams in the form of Barbra Streisand and Dustin Hoffman, both shamelessly mugging for the cameras and having a blast doing it. Amazingly, they manage to pull off the feat of being Large Kosher Hams.
- Apparently directorial advice to Forest Whitaker for playing Cpt. Jack Wander in Street Kings was something like "speak very VERY loudly half the time, act like you're hitting on Keanu Reeves for the other half" - with a wikked Baw-stahn accent all the while. Yum yum, good ham.
- Michael "Basil Exposition" York as the Antichrist in The Omega Code 2: Megiddo probably tops every single example on this page, to the point that the movie should have been called The Omega Ham. His performance single-handedly elevates this movie to So Bad Its Good status. See for yourself.
- Nathan Lane, in nearly everything, but especially The Birdcage.
- The whole movie was a hamming competition between Robin Williams and Nathan Lane. And it was AWESOME.
- Austin Powers has quite a few including the main character and Dr. Evil. (both played by Mike Myers). "OH BEHAVE!"
- Listen up you primitive screwheads! Bruce Campbell is a LARGEHAM! He starts off a line as a Deadpan Snarker, top-of-the-line. You can find this in lines like "Groovy". That's right, then this sweet actor from Royal Oak, Michigan gets 110 bucks worth of ham. He's got a hyperactive jawline, walnut brown eyes and a hair ham trigger. So when shopping for ham, Shop Smart. Shop S-Mart. GOT THAT?
- Also, the only Sci Fi original movies that are even close to bearable are the ones with Bruce Campbell in them, specifically for this reason.
- His performance as an elderly Elvis in Bubba Ho-Tep is a slighty subdued version.
- Sort of lampshaded in Army Of Darkness, where one character asks if everyone in the future is as much of a loudmouthed braggart as he is.
- The delightful Sir Ian McKellen.
- YOU SHALL NOT PAAAAASSSSS!!
- The scene in X2 where a drugged Magneto talks to Xavier also comes to mind.
- Followed by some rare wordless hamming in X3, where Magneto lives out the secret fantasy of anyone who's ever been caught in traffic.
- Let's give Christopher Lee some love, shall we?
- Cliffhanger featured John Lithgow as the Big Bad, a criminal mastermind trying to find 100 million
dollars hams.
- Cate Blanchett in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Complete with Russian accent.
- Another female example: Hermione Gingold.
- Sean Connery's mentor role in Highlander - bonus marks for a velvet pimp outfit with peacock cloak - see here◊
- The Kurgan in the same movie sometimes becomes hammy as well (turning him even more creepy).
- Not to mention his performance as Sir August de Wynter in The Avengers. Includes his bombastic address to the Council of Ministers, his "Rain or shine, all is MINE!", and his over-the-top insults to Steed.
- John Travolta's backing of and appearance in Battlefield Earth would be damning enough, but his performance... wow.
- "While you were still learning how to SPELL YOUR NAME!...I...was being trained...to conquer GALAXIES!
- "I aM TorGo. I tAke caRe oF tHe PlaCe wHilE thE MastEr iS aWay."
- The actor was actually dubbed by someone else, as the camera they used couldn't record sound. Although, Torgo's constant mugging and twitching suggests that he was perfectly capable of hamming it up in mime. Even his walk is over the top.
- "MANOS! As thou hast decreed, so have I done. The Hands of Fate have doomed this man! Thy... will...is...done."
- Ann-Margret in Ken Russell's "Tommy." Fine ham abounds. And your ham has to be pretty damned fine to stand out in that freakfest (see Tina Turner as the Acid Queen and Keith Moon as Uncle Ernie just for starters). She even got an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.
- The Matrix. Agent Smith is so hammy he doesn't need a ham-related pun! "Humans...are a virussss...a disease...and we are the cure!"
- Even more in the sequels ("Missster Anderson! Surprised to see me?" and of course, "Smith Will Suffice").
- Roddy McDowall as Peter Vincent in Fright Night and its sequel. Also Chris Sarandon's character Jerry Dandridge counts too. Oh yeah, and Evil Ed. "You're so cool Brewster!".
- Mystery Men has quite a few most notably Casanova Frankenstein and Tony P.
- Both Tonies, actually: "Hey, shovel man! Dig this!"
- Obadiah Stane.
- The Wizard/Mako in Conan The Barbarian is a humming ball of ham in a seaweed outfit, while Thulsa Doom manages to be completely mesmerising, yet hammy as well. "Steel isn't strong, boy...flesssh is stronger."
Contemplate this... on the tree of woe.
Mako: "BETWEEEEEN THE TIME WHEN THE OCEANS DRAANK ATLAAANTIS... AAAND the rise of the sons of Aryas... there was an age undreamed-of. AND ONTO THIS, CONAN! Destined to bear the jeweled cwown of Kahlifonia Aquilonia UP...PON A TROUB...BLED...BROW. It is I his KWONICLER who ALONE can tell thee of his story. LET ME TELL YOU OF THE DAYS OF HIIIIIIIGH AD-VEN-TUUUUREE!!!!"
- Margaret HAMilton as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard Of Oz?
- John Candy sometimes played roles like this. In the 1986 film version of Little Shop of Horrors he had a cameo as an over-the-top radio DJ named Weird Wink Wilkinson. Weirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrd stuff!
- Dan Aykroyd as JP Valkanheiser in Nothing But Trouble. Boola boola boola!.
- Quentin Tarantino whenever he decides to act. See his performances in Pulp Fiction and From Dusk Till Dawn.
- Peter Sellers knew a thing or two about being this in many of his films. Prime cuts of ham include the title character in Dr Strangelove and Dr. Fritz Fassbender in What's New Pussycat (arguing with his wife: "Is she prettier than you? I'M prettier than you!"). And Chief Inspector Jacques Clouseau was good for five films' worth of this, especially as he drove Herbert Lom's hapless Dreyfus to the (hammy) edge of sanity.
- Stanley Kubrick, making Lolita, gave Sellers plenty of room to improvise, so his part as Claire Quilty grew much larger than planned, apparently bothering star James Mason in the process.
- Half the cast members of Enchanted are practically required by the situation (cartoon fairy tale characters thrown into the real world) to do this. James Marsden and Susan Sarandon are especially generous with the ham.
- George Pickett is played this way in Gettysburg. In his first appearance, he comes riding into Longstreet's camp shouting "HELLO MY BOYS, VIRGINIA HAS ARRIVED!".
- In the prequel, Jeff Daniels hams it up HUGE with his recitation of Marcus Lucanus's poem about Caesar crossing the Rubicon. Tops it off with "HAIL, CAESAR! WE WHO ARE ABOUT TO DIE, SALUTE YOU!"
- The Baron Harkonnen of David Lynch's film of Dune is an enormous bucket of ham. His nephews Rabban and Feyd are definitely on their way to full ham-hood, Piter de Vries even proves you can give sign language a pork content, and Gurney Halleck is hammy as ever.
- Ian McNeice chews up immense amounts of scenery as the Baron in the Sci-Fi miniseries. Possibly lampshaded when Paul suggests renaming House Harkonnen to "House Hog". Though it's probably just the Atreides having a laugh at the Harkonnens' expense.
- Kyle Reese in every line of The Terminator.
- Speaking of Michael Biehn, he actually plays the soft-spoken badass in Aliens, letting Bill Paxton take charge as the memorably large Ham of that movie ("Game over, man! GAME OVER!").
- GREAT ODIN'S BEARD! Did someone mention Ron Burgundy?
- John Belushi in the So Bad Its Good war comedy 1941.
- Not to mention the entirety of The Blues Brothers. Take the scene where Belushi finally comes face to face with Carrie Fisher - aka, the Chick With the Flamethrower - and throws himself on his knees to apologize:
Jake: Oh, please, don't kill us! Please, please don't kill us! You know I love you baby. I wouldn't leave ya. It wasn't my fault!
Mystery Woman: You miserable slug! You think you can talk your way out of this? You betrayed me.
Jake: No, I didn't! Honest! I ran out of gas! I, I had a flat tire! I didn't have enough money for cab fare! My tux didn't come back from the cleaners! An old friend came in from out of town! Someone stole my car! THERE WAS AN EARTHQUAKE! A TERRIBLE FLOOD! LOCUSTS! IT WASN'T MY FAULT, I SWEAR TO GOD!
- Listen to the announcer in just about any trailer for a science fiction film from the 1950s. Every single one of them tries to inform the audience, in the hammiest way possible, how terrifying, imaginative, fantastical, mind-revolutionizing, and amazing their film is. The trailer for "Them!" is especially notable for this.
- The Cat in the Hat:
Mr. Humberfloob: Fired.
Jim McFinnigan: I beg your pardon?
Mr. Humberfloob: Fired.
Jim McFinnigan: But I...
Mr. Humberfloob: FIIIIIIRRRRRRREEEEEEDDDDDD-UH!
Soon after:
Mr. Humberfloob: [speaking to Joan] If your house is as messy as last time, YOU'RE FIIIIIIRRRRRRREEEEEEDDDDDD-UH!
- No specific lines come to this editor's mind at the moment but Dolph Lundgren reeeally hammed it up as a villain in Universal Soldier.
- Zero Mostel. Estragon in Waiting For Godot. Max Bialystock in The Producers. Abe in The Hot Rock. Pseudolus in 'A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum. John in Rhinocerous''. He wasn't always a ham, but when he was, he was the biggest, best, hammiest ham ever.
- He was also the voice of Kehaar, a Large Ham seagull.
- The one human being who can out Ham the Muppets. Don't believe me?
- In the second clip even his index finger overacts.
- Subverted in The Front, in which he plays an actor who plays Large Ham, but is generally low key save one drunk scene. His suicide is quiet, dignified, and depressing.
- Peter Lorre on some occasions.
- Gary Oldman certainly showed potential in Sid and Nancy, but he wouldn't come into his own as a real ham until Dracula, where he served up an intense, hissing slice of Romanian pork product. We got a second course in True Romance, with Drexl the dreadlocked pimp ("It ain't white boy day is it?"). But his peak was undeniably The Professional:
- Things calmed down for a couple of years, until The Fifth Element, where weapons dealer Zorg somehow became a used car salesman channeling Ross Perot. He then hit another high point in Air Force One, where castmates appear to be genuinely afraid. Whether this was just good acting or fear that he was about to go into cardiac arrest is unknown. He even managed to ham it up in two episdoes of Friends, though this appears to have been the end of the ham ... for now.
- Peter Ustinov steals the spotlight in every movie he appears in. Special mention goes to his performance of Nero in Quo Vadis, where he makes being the emperor of Rome look so fun that it's just about impossible to hate him even as he makes living torches out of Christians.
- "Oh! Is this the untimely end of Nero?" Declare it in your most florid voice; it's fun!
- A good chaser to Tim Curry's Pass the Ammo performance is the barely-released Marty Feldman comedy In God We Tru$t (1980), which brought the world Andy Kaufman as a Deep South televangelist. The character's name, Armageddon T. Thunderbird, is just the tip of the ham hock here.
- Supporting performer Scott Paulin, in the otherwise ridiculous and abysmal beat-'em-up Knights. The leads are either capable only of Dull Surprise (Kathy Long), or clearly thinking mainly of their pay-cheques (Kris Kristofferson, Lance Henrikson); Paulin appears to have been the only one on the set who realised he was playing a vampire ninja cyborg named after an apostle and decided to just go with it! The resulting exuberant, gleeful bombast that embues 'Simon's' seven screen-minutes almost hauls the movie up into the 'cheesy-fun' bracket.
- Ciaran Hinds in the 1997 version of Jane Eyre. Just look at this.
- Mamma Mia! consists of Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Julie Walters, and Christine Baranski switching between hamming it up for all they're worth and giving a heartbreakingly genuine performance. Sometimes they do both at once.
- Jon Voight as Magnificent Bastard Paul Sarone in Anaconda.
- Christopher Walken playing an outsized version of himself in Balls of Fury.
- The best part of Steven Spielberg's Hook was undoubtedly Dustin Hoffman as the titular character. Say it with me: "I. HATE. PETER. PAAAAAAAAN!"
- Naomi Watts in The Ring. "What do you WANT from MEEE!?" and most infamously, "I'm NOT your FUCKing
HAMMYMOMMY!"
- Mel Brooks in anything. Particularly hammy as President Skroob in Spaceballs:
"Why didn't anyone ever tell me my ass HAM was SO BIG!!"
"This ship is too long! If I walk, da movie'll be over!!"
- Kurt Russell has such a habit of hamming it up that you could practically make a drinking game out of it. Probably the most jarring example would be the river shoot out in Tombstone, shouting a Big No as he unloads two barrels of buckshot into Curly Bill while making a face that could only be described as the face that a walrus makes when sucker-punched in the kidneys.
- Hell, everybody in Tombstone takes big pieces out of the scenery - Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday, Michael Biehn as Johnny Ringo, Sam Elliot as Virgil Earp ...
- The Daredevil movie was notable for one thing: the deliciously hammy performance of Colin Farrell as Bullseye. It was quite an appropriate way to play scenes in which he killed people with peanuts, pencils, paper clips, and playing cards.
- What? No Galaxy Quest? Never give up! Never surrender!
- As well as Star Trek, this movie is essentially a tribute to the glory of hammy actors. Which might possibly be one and the same thing given, you know, Star Trek...
- Most of the cast of Rat Race, with special mentions to Rowan Atkinson and John Cleese.
- Michael Caine in The Swarm plays his Heroic Scientist character as condescending towards everyone and with a tendency to start shouting at the top of his lungs with almost no provocation.
- The main villain in the otherwise forgettable film Warriors Of Virtue. While everyone else appeared to be playing their roles arrow-straight, the Big Bad goes so far over the top throughout the movie he could touch God.
- The Doctor/Cobra Commander from GI Joe The Rise Of Cobra - and he spends most of the movie with a mask on, hamming it up with just his Darth Vader-like voice.
- Clive Merrison's headmaster in The History Boys is definitely hamming it up.
- Also, most of the boys get an element of this at least once in the show, especially when they're acting out scenes from classic films.
- Bette Davis as Baby Jane Hudson in What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? "But you are, Blanche! You are in that chair!"
- Lampshaded in Cecil B Demented:
Honey Whitlock: What do I get if I win? (referring to the Honey Whitlock costume contest)
Ticket Seller: A big ham! What else?
- Robocop. Peter Weller in the first two, Ronny Cox, Kurtwood Smith, and Miguel Ferrer (among others) in the first one, Tom Noonan (among others) in the second, Rip Torn (among others) in the third...
- Judge Dredd. Armand Assante as Rico.
- Gene Wilder as Frederick
Fronkensteen Frankenstein in Young Frankenstein.
- For single film Ham content, it's very difficult to get past Gabriel Byrne as Uther and Nicol Williamson as Merlin in John Boorman's film Excalibur. Williamson in particular just goes to town on the scenery:
Merlin: BeHOOOOOLLLLlllddd! The sword of POWahhhh! ExxxxCALibahhh!
Merlin: CHHHAAAAaaaange! TRANS! FORM! NOWWW!
Merlin: Oh, I have sleeept. For nine moOOns. What I did for eeeewe wasn't easy.
Merlin: Do nothing. Sleep! Rest in the arms of the dragonnnn. DREEEEAAAAMMM.
Gabriel Byrne, however, just hams it up for all it's worth:
Uther: Merlin! I am the STRONGEST! I am the ONE!!
Uther: They were hasty words Merlin! This is FLESH! and BLOOD!
Literature
- The titular character of Howl's Moving Castle.
- The tall, exuberant Dutchman Mijnheer Peeperkorn in Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain. (He was modelled after Real Life German author Gerhart Hauptmann.)
- Nicholas van Rijn, interstellar entrepreneur in Poul Anderson's Polesotechnic League stories. If these were made into movies, he'd have to be played by Brian Blessed. He talks and acts Big Ham, certainly, but is also large and fat, just so you don't miss the point.
- Archchancellor Ridcully, wizard of wizards in the Discworld series is also another candidate to be played by BRIAN BLESSED in any live-action adaptation, although in the Hogfather movie they went with Joss Ackland.
- This trope is given a rather amusing nod in "Wyrd Sisters" when Granny visits the theater. While investigating the relative reality of theater, she catches a luckless former corpse backstage, still very much alive, and eating a ham sandwich.
- There's one in the Jane Austen novel Pride and Prejudice - Lady Catherine du Burgh in any incarnation, but especially as played by Dame Judi Dench.
- Ciaphas Cain, HERO OF THE IMPERIUM is actually a deconstruction of the Large Ham. He puts on one hell of a show for the average Imperial citizen, in reality, he just wants to get away from it all. He privately admits that he's never averse to being the center of attention when it doesn't involve incoming fire.
- "Excuse me! Elassar Targon, Master of the Universe, reporting for duty!" A pilot in the X Wing Series, Elassar has the odd distinction of always reacting hammily.
- MST 3 K subject The Sword and the Dragon has everyone talk like this. One of the host spots had Bill as the hero, "For it is ham that I seek! Ham! HAAAAAMM!!!" It actually comes off underplayed compared to the actual movie.
- 1632: "My name is Ruy Sanchez de Casador y Ortiz. Prepare to die."
Live Action TV
- The 1960's Batman. There was no point in even auditioning for a role, no matter how small, if you weren't ham through and through. Even the nameless mooks were Large Hams.
- The Fonz, after the second season of Happy Days.
- Several examples from Babylon 5:
- Draal, played by John Schuck. Apparently that Epsilon III machine had a large database on overacting.
- Don't forget Jason Ironheart from the 1st season episode "Mind War." Worst. Acting. Ever.
- Gregory Martin as Colonel Ben-Zayne in "Eyes" could give Ironheart a run for his money in both hamminess and bad acting.
- Knight #2 from the first season episode "And the Sky Full of Stars". Perhaps he was planning to make Sinclair spill the beans through exposing him to his
horrible purposeful overacting.
Knight #2: Maybe you're asleep! Maybe you're insane! Maybe you're dead! Maybe you're in hell! Not that it matters much, Commander Sinclair, because wherever you are - wherever you go - you're mine!
- Wayne Alexander as Sebastian.
Sebastian: Your only destiny is to be the nail that gets hammered down. Bang, bang, bang!
- Centauri seem generally prone to overacting, but there's a reason Londo Mollari became Emperor, and it's not the Shadow/Rifa conspiracy.
- Star Trek
- Pretty much every cast-member in the Star Trek Universe eats a ham sandwich before coming on set (as the entry on the Film section also shows), but special mentions to:
- Kor (John Colicos) in Star Trek Deep Space Nine (a reprisal of his role in Star Trek The Original Series, where he was bit less of a ham, actually. Maybe achieving the Dahar Master rank comes with a license to chew scenery?)
- Q from Star Trek The Next Generation and Star Trek Voyager.
- A rare female example, Majel Barrett as Lwaxana Troi.
- Trelane, the Squire of Gothos, in Star Trek The Original Series. Childishness and enthusiasm are just who he is.
- The king of hams, of course, is Captain Kirk himself.
- Followed closely by Avery Brooks in the episode "Our Man Bashir", where he plays a demented, James Bond-style supervillain in Bashir's holodeck program — and quickly proceeds to swallow most of the scenery with barely a pause for breath. His Just Between You And Me moments are a thing of hammy beauty.
- His final showdown with Dukat was utter hammy gold:
Sisko: The Pah-Wraiths will never conquer anything! Not Bajor, not the Celestial Temple, and certainly not the Alpha Quadrant!
Dukat: And who's going to stop us?
Sisko: I HAM! YAM!!!!!
- And Dukat himself? A prime cut of Cardassian ham, and it gets better as he gets nuttier:
Dukat: I'm so glad we had this time together, Benjamin. Because we won't be seeing each other for a while. I have unfinished business on Bajor! They thought I was their enemy! They don't know what it is to be my enemy, but they will!! From this day forward, Bajor is dead. All of Bajor!!! And this time, even their Emissary won't be able to save them!!
- Even though he usually plays a relative Straight Man compared with Kirk and Sisko, Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard had a couple of truly delicious scenes. "THERE! ARE! FOUR!! LIGHTS!!!"
- The evil Mirror Universe version of Captain Archer seemed to be channeling Kirk.
- Evil!Sulu is another delicious slice of ham. In fact, most Mirror Universe episodes seem to be an excuse to break out the pork-based products.
- Whenever Data put on his Sherlock Holmes hat, he also put on his bib for a big slice of ham. "The GAME... is AFOOT!"
- Star Trek Voyager. Every character in The Adventures of Captain Proton! hams it up mercilessly, most notably Mad Scientist Doctor Chaotica, Ruler of the Cosmos ("FOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLL! You will PAY for your inCOMpetence!"). This is hardly surprising as the holoprogram is based on Republic movie serials like Flash Gordon and Commando Cody. Even crewmembers who initially regard the program with bemused contempt end up playing their roles with gusto — such as the Doctor as The President of Earth, and Captain Janeway as Queen Arachnia of the Spider People. Seven of Nine however is a notable exception.
- And who could forget the Voyager episode that started with the Holographic Doctor putting on an opera in a Dream Sequence, wherein he single handedly saved the crew with his deft hands and his Tenoric rendition of "La Donna e Mobile"? ("Tu-vok I un-der-stand / You are a Vul-can man / You have just gone with-out / For sev-en years (about)")
- Seven of Nine is pretty much an anti-ham, except when she's also the EMH, who must have had hamminess written into his code, or when she's manifesting the personalities of certain assimilated individuals.
- Jeffrey Combs as Shran on Enterprise.
- Jeffrey Combs in just about anything could feed a family of four for a year.
- Although he plays it weirdly subtle as The Question.
- In her short acting career, Alice Rawlings got to overact opposite William Shatner. She played a young girl who blamed Kirk for her father's (supposed) death and expressed it in her own subtle way: "YOU MURDERER!!! YOU MURDERER!!!"
- The Fear Clown from the Voyager episode "The Thaw" is a wonderfully hammy bit of total Nightmare Fuel.
- Apparently, Louise Fletcher had a grand ol' time as recurring character Kai Winn Adami in Star Trek Deep Space Nine.
- Doctor Who
- Paul Mc Gann may only have spent one movie as the Doctor, but boy did he make up for it with enough Ham to cover much longer tenures the other Doctors had.
- More Must Ham TV:
- Numerous guest stars on Friends.
- The recurring character of Janice was another female example, complete with her Incoming Ham Catch Phrase "Oh! My! God!!!" It's clear that Maggie Wheeler was having a lot of fun with the part.
- As noted above, William Shatner has wholly reinvented - and not coincidentally reinvigorated - his career in latter years based on his reputation as the embodiment of this trope. Memorable results include Commander Murdock in Airplane 2, Denny Crane from Boston Legal, The Big Giant Head on Third Rock From The Sun and various Priceline.com commercials.
- Speaking of Third Rock From The Sun, how about John Lithgow as Dick Solomon? "I'm GORGEOUS!"
- And John Lithgow in nearly everything he's done since January 9, 1996.
- That includes the voice of Lord Farquaad in Shrek.
- Jimmy James from News Radio, who was actually part of the regular cast.
- Most (okay, virtually all) of the Goa'uld System Lords were bonded to this trope at a subatomic level. Apophis, Anubis and Ba'al are probably the three standouts, though Chronos, Sokar and Yu are right up there. The real fun came from mixing character tropes: Anubis was a Large Ham and a Complete Monster, while Ba'al was an Affably Evil LargeHamming Magnificent Bastard, and ended up becoming one of the most popular characters in the series. Guest Star hams were probably led by Dom DeLuise, who starred in the episode "Urgo" where he was amazingly annoying to everyone who could see him, including hamming it up to the extreme. It's one of the most fun episodes of the series, behind Jack and Teal'c's Groundhog Day Loop episode Window of Opportunity.
- The Always Chaotic Evil Wraith from Stargate Atlantis are also like this, so much so that most of their dialogue in the first few seasons consisted mostly of variations of "I AM YOUR DEATH!". They have gotten some more characterisation in the latest seasons, however.
- Parodied by The Young Ones, in which a guest star's particularly blustery (and intentionally so) appearance earns supposed "applause" from the Laugh Track while the real studio audience is still laughing.
- The ham in question being Barry Stanton as the Postman in the Series 2 episode "Nasty". After exiting at the end of his scene, he can be heard recounting theatrical anecdotes in a loud voice from the wings until Vyvyan tells him to shut up.
- Rik Mayall as the various incarnations of "The" Lord Flashheart in Blackadder, again largely within the context of the series.
- Also, Stephen Fry as "The Iron Duke" of Wellington in the final episode of Blackadder the Third.
- Alright everyone who's read Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, go back, read it again, and this time imagine that Duke of Wellington as this one.
- And as Field Marshal Melchett in Blackadder Goes Forth
- How could you forget BRIAN BLESSED from the first season!
Messenger: My Lord, news: the Swiss have invaded France.
BRIAN BLESSED: EXCELLENT! WHILE THEY'RE AWAY, TAKE 10,000 TROOPS AND PILLAGE GENEVA!!
Messenger: But the Swiss are our allies, My Lord.
BRIAN BLESSED: Oh yes... Well, er, get them to dress up as Germans, will you?
- Don't forget Captain Rum from the second season and the actors from the third.
- The
Baby Scenery Eating Bishop of Bath and Wells. Have you ever considered a career in the CHURCH?!!
- Tobias from Arrested Development. And Barry Zuckercorn. And Lucille Austero. And Carl Weathers, and Wayne Jarvis, and Maggie Lizer... in fact, at least half the Recurrers. Still, only Barry (played by The Fonz himself) can out-ham Tobias.
- Richard Hatch as Tom Zarek on Battlestar Galactica, especially on his first appearance. Usually fairly quiet compared to some of the ham on offer on this page, but prone to dramatic statements and poetical descriptions that stand in stark contrast to every other character, giving one the impression he feels momentous times require momentous performances. Immensely entertaining it has to be said. 'Zeus has returned to Olympus' Why not just say Adama was back, Zarek?
- Lampshaded when Lee tells him he was supposed to call for a motion, not give a filibuster speech.
- Not to mention Adama himself.
- From Heroes (considering the superhero movie examples in the Film section, not strange):
- Malcolm McDowell as Mr. Linderman.
- Over time, Malcolm McDowell's metabolism has changed to the point where he can now only subsist on a diet of chewed scenery.
- In the same series, Hiro Nakamura is a honey glazed Christmas ham that can feed a family of forty. In a subversion, the actor is anything but.
- Sylar has always been deli cold cuts, if not a complete Christmas ham, though I swear he's getting kind of close. "MY NAME IS SYLAR!!!!!"
- "Shawn Spencer" from Psych - who is without a doubt the biggest pseudo psychic ham in all of network television.
- Arguably the show plays with the trope; Shawn only hams it up when doing the psychic schtick, and even then it's deliberate.
- Jonathan Harris as Doctor Zachary Smith in the original Lost In Space. "Never fear, Smith is here!" "Oh, the pain, the pain."
- This troper watched David Oyelowo do a subtle, but angry performance as Joseph of Arimathea in The Passion (a 2008 Passion Play). The following day, he saw The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency, which features the guy playing a role with enough ham for several meals.
- John Shea as Lex Luthor in Lois And Clark was all crazy-eyes, all the time. Not adverse to alternating slimy and seductive shtick with voluble outbursts of villainous venom. "Intense" is a word that comes to mind...
- He didn't hold a candle to Lane Davies playing Tempus, who is a time traveller from the future where Superman's secret identity is well known to everyone, indicating Superman revealed it at some point. Tempus is mocking Lois for being (in his best line ever) "galactically stupid" in not noticing that Clark Kent looks amazingly like Superman wearing glasses. (Tempus puts on a pair of glasses, "Look, I'm Clark Kent!". He then takes off the glasses, "Now I'm Superman!". Repeat several times in a sarcastic mocking tone. Total ham.
- The endlessly unexpected SPANISH INQUISITION!! from Monty Python's Flying Circus... but only when they can get their lines straight.
- Parodied in episode 25, where excessively melodramatic actors are committed to the Royal Hospital for Over-acting.
- BRIAN BLESSED as the friendly Greek handyman Spiro in My Family and other Animals (the 1987 original version, not the 2005 remake), from the books by British writer and naturalist Gerald Durrell about his memories of his childhood on Corfu during the 1930s.
- And let's face it, BRIAN BLESSED in pretty much everything he's ever been in. He's a trope unto himself. The guy even managed to play Saint Peter like this. Seriously.
- BRIAN BLESSED doing snooker commentary. What Do You Mean Its Not Awesome?
- He was enjoyably hammy as the evil priest Vargas on Blake's 7, "Cygnus Alpha": "I will return to them a GO-O-O-O-ODDD!!!" He was much less enjoyable, though equally hammy, on Doctor Who. He was actually restrained and subtle as the Ghost in Hamlet. (Branagh was really intense all the time in the same movie.)
- Mr. Belding on Saved By The Bell.
- Mr. T, fool!
- Dr. Rick Dagless, as part of the So Bad Its Good-ness of Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. Thornton Reed is supposed to be played as a Large Ham, but his actor Dean Learner is so horrible that it doesn't work.
- Everyone on Hannah Montana. This wouldn't be so bad if the actors actually knew how to act.
- The teacher being a very obvious example, as he is kind of a take-off of Jack Black's character from School Of Rock.
- The announcer for Ninja Warrior enthusiastically improvises Purple Prose for every contestant possible.
- The Japanese announcer uses even purpler prose that the English translation does.
- Many of the recurring characters on Twin Peaks.
- Jon Lovitz's Master Thespian character on Saturday Night Live was both a parody and epitome of the Large Ham.
- Another SNL character that deserves a mention is Matt Foley. "You're going to have a lot of time doing (insert action here) WHEN YOU'RE LIVING IN A VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER!"
- The Continental.
- Nation, I am furious that it took this long to mention Stephen Colbert.
- Robin Williams' guest appearance on Law And Order Special Victims Unit. PUSH! THE! BUTTONNNNNNNN!!!!!
- Or in nearly everything else he's been in...
- Miss Piggy from The Muppet Show is a Large Ham in more ways than one, not to mention one of the few female examples.
- Link Hogthrob also deserves the epithet, although of course he was (as Captain of the Swine Trek) a pastiche of Shatner himself, so it's expected. Really, any Muppet Jim Henson performed with that particular voice might qualify.
- Drake And Josh had Josh be like this for the 1st and 2nd season including him repeating words for emphasis. "EMPHASIS!"
- SCTV satirisised this with such characters as Lola Heatherton and Count Floyd. Two very noticable examples being Johnny LaRue and Bobby Bitman. Bobby Bitman, being a parody of Vegas style comedians, is a very good example of this as every bit of him is hammy including his catchphrase "HOW ARE YA?".
- Frasier Crane just about any time something riles him up. It began in Cheers with his classic "YOU WILL *RUE* THE DAY YOU DID THAT!", which became a semi-catchphrase.
- IN YOUR FIREY THRONE PRESIDING OVER THE DAMMNED!.
- Law & Order: Criminal Intent's Detective Goren, played by Vincent D'Onofrio, has been getting increasingly ham-y over the years, though it is debatable whether this is a case of overacting or caused by the further development of the character's own psychological problems due to the stress of his work and family (and he was probably a few fries short of a Happy Meal to begin with). Since all sources of drama in his life - including Nicole Wallace - were recently 'taken care of' by his now-demented former mentor, he may yet calm down a bit as his usual chaos is gone.
- D'Onofrio's performances were well-modulated until showrunner Rene Balcer left. Everything about the show suffered under Warren Leight's reign. Hopefully, the new showrunner will do a better job (Leight left to run "In Treatment".)
- John Larroquette tends to be all over this trope:
- A guest spot in The West Wing.
Lionel Tribbey: I will KILL people today, Leo! I will KILL people with this cricket bat, which was given to me by Her Royal Majesty Elizabeth Windsor, and then I will kill them again WITH MY OWN HANDS!
- Lord John Marbury from the same series is also incredibly hammy
- A guest spot in Chuck.
- Or in any episode of Night Court.
- Jack Gallo in Just Shoot Me.
- Lampshaded in Green Wing where Sue White wanders in dressed as a giant leg of ham.
- The Sarah Connor Chronicles has Doctor Silberman's return in "The Demon Hand" as a psychotic, deranged man living in the mountains, who starts off as a fairly calm and collected person who steadily begins chowing down on larger and larger servings of ham. By the end of the episode, he's thrashing about in an insane asylum, screaming "THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!"
- Buffy The Vampire Slayer has The Master, a powerful vampire who seems to live off scenery, not blood.
- Don't forget Angelus. He relished in making everything he did—including his heinous acts of violence—as big and noticable as he possibly could. All the better to help Angel feel guilty with, my dear!
- Adam, the First, and Caleb also qualify. The First in particular is rather hammy. It's the source of all evil, and knows it.
- Olaf the Troll from the episode "Triangle". All his lines were written in ALLCAPS, and it came across onscreen. The actor is clearly having a blast.
- All Power Rangers. And every Power Rangers villain as well.
- Beetleborgs had a notable few, including Flabber.
- And Fangula. He was based on Dracula though, and that makes it pretty much a prerequisite.
- One word: Flabber. He's one, hammy flabberific phasm. It kind of helps that his mannerisms are based on Jim Carrey as Ace Ventura and that he's also kind of a cross between Robin William's Genie and Jim Carrey as The Mask.
- One of the most memorable hammy villains was Devastation from SPD. This guy's entrance was literally punctuated by fireworks, and he said his own name upon appearing on the scene. After trouncing the Rangers, he actually told them to "marinate...IN FEAR!" As opposed to Devastation himself, who seemed to have been marinated in animal fat and then lightly basted before being served up as Christmas dinner. Did we mention he sounds just like "Macho Man" Randy Savage?
- Radster from Lost Galaxy also counts.
- While not necessarily the most iconic ham, a villain whose catchphrase is "Viva La Diva, baby!" has to be the Ur-example in this category. Some of Divatox's more memorable moments were "ARISE...AND MEET YOUR BRIDE!" and the somewhat famous "I LOVE it when a plan comes together!"
- Lothor of Ninja Storm throws in a little Media Awareness as well. "What did you expect, he wasn't going to get smaller." (He looks directly into the camera as he says it, too.)
- Tenaya 7 of Power Rangers RPM is frequently pausing in the middle of fights to make speeches, which she never gets to finish.
- Of course, Rita's iconic screeching voice has yet to be topped.
- Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes isn't on here yet? Hmm...HA!
- George Constanza from Seinfeld, his father Frank also counts. NO ONE TELLS FRANK CONSTANZA WANT TO DO!.
- Zor-El from Smallville. "THE BLOOD OF THE HOUSE OF EL RUNS THROUGH YOU!"
- The 2008 BBC adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel Little Dorrit has Rignaud played by Andy "Gollum" Serkis. Serkis plays the role with a strong French accent for a start.
- Firefly tends to avoid being overly melodramatic, except when someone threatens Mal's crew. Because when you turn on ANY OF HIS CREW, YOU TURN ON HIM!
- What about Wash? Y'know, him of an evil laugh?
- And of course, who can forget Leo McKern, everyone's favorite second in command on The Prisoner? "DEGRRRREEEE ABSOOOOLUUUUTE!"
- Pick a comedic episode of Supernatural. Any comedic episode. Watch as Jensen Ackles hams it up and nibbles on the scenery. He's a ham on the bonus features, too.
- Ahh, if only the brothers' names were the other way around. "And now, Jensen Ackles as Ham Winchester!"
- Sebastian Stark of Shark, along with nearly every other character James Woods has played. Stark's hammy personality seems to be one of his preferred courtroom strategies.
- Horatio... *shades* Caine.
- In-character example: Sophie Deveraux from Leverage is an incredibly skilled and versatile con artist... when she's on a job. Unfortunately, all she really wants to do is act. And it's not a good look on her. (Of course, the once — just once — she pulled off a credible performance while already undercover as an actress, there wasn't any film in the cameras.)
- Keith Olbermann of Countdown with Keith Olbermann enjoys eating a large ham sandwich before delivering the news. He double doses before his Special Comments.
- The IT Crowd has Matt Berry as Douglas Reynholm not forgetting his ffffaaaather Denholm Reynholm played by Chris Morris, both of whom were in The Mighty Boosh and did some great Ham And Cheese.
- Basil Brush from The Basil Brush Show and also his cousin Mortimer to some extent. Who can forget that laugh?
- Pretty much every major and guest actor in the 1970s sci-fi series Space 1999 is either completely wooden, or producing metric tons of ham. Sometimes in going from one to the other in the space of a single line. The most notable is the episode "Death's Other Dominion", which featured BRIAN BLESSED.
- The laziest and hammiest person in the whole of Lazytown in the tv series Lazytown is without a doubt Robbie Rotten. Portrayed in an over-the-top style similar to Jim Carrey's portrayal of the title character in How The Grinch Stole Christmas. He'll keep on hamming........''FOREVER!!'.
- "And the secret ingredient is.... HHHHHAAAAAAAMMMMM!"
- In the 7th season of 24 John Voight played Jonas Hodges, an executive at the Private Military Corporation Starkwood, and he was part of the Cabal that has been present since Season 5. He was also one of the hammiest villans with bizarre dialog like this:
- "Stress is the fertilizer of creativity. Now, let's play some darts."
- "They're six year olds, Greg. And they need to eat their carrots."
- He was also one of the best villans that 24 has ever had, and part of that was because he was a crazy, hammy bastard.
- How did we miss the ULTIMATE ham of 24; Jack Bauer.....the show wouldn't be a tenth as good if Kiefer Sutherland played the role low-key.
"Who is the ham man in Visalia!?!?"
"Where's the ham bomb?!?!".
- Although Dennis Haysbert's performance was very subtle, President David Palmer was certainly not above snacking on scenery. Actually it was quite effective.
"That is an obscene suggestion!"
- Come to think of it, ham must be a Palmer family treat. Sherry, Wayne, and Sandra Palmer all bust out several plates of ham when they deem it necessary.
- Jenna Maroney on 30 Rock.
- In Farscape, out of all the hammy villains encountered, Maldis is by far the hammiest:
- "YOU KNOW WHAT I THINK, JOHN?! YOU CAN TALK 'TILL YOUR TONGUE FALLS OUT! HE'S GONNA KILL YOU REGARDLESS! '''AAAAAAAARRRRRGHH!'
- Queen Sophie-Anne Leclerq from True Blood, as played by Evan Rachel Wood.
- Harland Williams. A good example of his hamming it up, interestingly, come from the commercial bumpers that they had him appear in for Kids WB (view some of them here; needless to say, someone at Warner Bros. soon realized we didn't need him to tell us that The Sylvester And Tweety Mysteries was back from the commercials in a Dracula voice.
- SHOCKING no one has brought up I, Claudius. It stars BRIANBLESSED and John Hurt! Virtually everyone gets moments of large ham. Livia, Julia, Augustus, Caligula, the Sibyl prophetess from the beginning, etcetera.
"IS THERE ANYONE IN ROME WHO HASN'T SLEPT WITH MY DAUGHTER?!??!"
- Harry Hamlin's Uncle Marty in Harpers Island.
Music
Professional Wrestling
- Seriously, does this one even NEED specific examples? Is there anyone involved in any way with professional wrestling who does NOT qualify?
- WWE chairman Vince McMahon turns into a Large Ham, not only on the WWE's own programming, but whenever there's a camera on him. This is best shown in the documentary Beyond the Mat, in the scene where he gives Darren Drozdov his gimmick. "He's gonna puke! He's gonna PUKE!"
- Let's not forget the "tidal wave of phlegm" phenomenon that is so prominent in his way of saying "You're fired!" that it's impossible to hear it without laughing.
- And then there's Hulk Hogan, who almost merits his own page on this wiki and set the standard among Professional Wrestling for large hamminess that all others emulate.
- The Ultimate Warrior. 'Nuff said.
- Possibly subverted as he seems to be that batshit insane in real life.
- Santino Marella. "Bring forth...The Honk-a-Meter!!!!"
- For a very short time, Charlie Haas (who is not very well-known for his charisma). "Mamajuana Extreme dot com!"
- Macho Man Randy Savage demands his place on this list, Oh Yeeeeaaaaaaaaah!!
- So does Black Machismo Jay Lethal, though his version is full of Narm.
- Bryan Danielson was long pegged as an impossibly brilliant wrestler who unfortunately had no personality. Then he won the Ring Of Honor Championship and started bringing the ham. His hammy act included daring the audience to riot because he is a "ONE MAN RIOT SQUAD," forcing the ring announcer to call him "The best wrestler in the world, with an emphasis on entire world," or most famously putting his opponents in illegal holds for as long as the referee allows him because "I HAVE TILL FIVE!" Quite the ostentatious performances from the so-called uncharismatic technician.
- Let's face it, wrestlers are typically either completely charisma-deprived or are so over-the top, the meter swings right past stupid and back to awesome again.
Close Professional Wrestling
Radio
- Sir Donald Sinden, in the BBC Radio adaptation of Death On The Nile. And the BBC Radio adaptation of The Hound Of The Baskervilles.
- The radio version of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy features a particularly hammy performance from their Zaphod Beeblebrox. This can also apply to the TV version, it used the same actors, but the low-budget second head tends to reduce the ham.
- This also applies to the movie iteration of Zaphod.
- Hell, any version of Zaphod is made up of 90% fresh ham.
- Daws Butler as THE FIRE-BREATHING DRAGON in St. George and the Dragonet. The dragon is arrested by St. George (Stan Freberg) for devouring maidens out of season and overacting.
- Ray Goulding, one-half of radio satirists Bob & Ray, who used his classically theatrical baritone to great effect in skits calling for this character type. Partly justified by the medium he was parodying, but mostly just because he was having a whole lot of fun.
- Edwin Blackgaard is an in-universe example from Adventures In Odyssey, but he's almost as bad off-stage. It makes for a very sharp contrast with his evil brother, Regis, who gives a quieter, more even-handed performance and is scarier for it.
Theatre
Actor
- Sarah Bernhardt was the original modern theatre Large Ham, even taking on Large Ham male roles. She was also a [4] Determinator - nothing could stop her, even being one-legged with almost no mobility could stop her from being an acclaimed actress.
- Isadore Duncan
Musical Ham
- Practically a requirement for anyone playing Richard Henry Lee in 1776, as the script has him constantly making "Lee"/"-ly" puns on adverbs and proclaiming he will single-handed-Lee deliver Virginia to the independence movement or may he be cursed forever.
- It is worth noting that Lee's involvement in the play amounts to basically two scenes
(one of which is a very long scene—the longest stretch without a musical number in any musical ever—but he's silent through much of it), and the original Broadway actor still won a Tony because the performance (i.e. his musical number) was just that memorable.
Shakespearean Ham
- Falstaff tends to fill this role in Shakespeare's Henry IV duology (in The Merry Wives of Windsor he becomes the Butt Monkey instead).
- If you perform A Midsummer Nights Dream and your Nick Bottom is not hammier than all three little pigs, you're doing it wrong.
- And anyone who doesn't break out the Large Ham when playing Dogberry should be replaced.
Stephen Sondham
Hamdrew Lloyd Weber
- Another female example: Carlotta in The Phantom Of The Opera (and by extension, many of the actresses playing her).
- It can be argued that most of the actors in that show need to be ostentatious to at least some degree, with the exceptions of those playing Christine, Raoul, and Meg. It is, after all, pure Melodrama.
- Heck, even Raoul gets his cut of the pork product on occasion. In some versions of the graveyard scene he and the Phantom seem to be fighting not so much over Christine as who gets the largest slice of ham. (It's usually the Phantom, who has the advantages of being the resident Magnificent Bastard and getting pyrotechnics.)
Lloyd Webber loves his large hams. Pharaoh from Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Rum Tum Tugger from CATS, and Herod from " Jesus Christ Superstar" (especially the 2000 version) are some of theater's best hams.
- Joseph.. in particular is one of those shows where you're not doing it right unless the entire cast is hamming it up to the hilt. Songs like "One More Angel in Heaven" and "Those Canaan Days" are impossible to perform any other way.
- In the London West End version of Cats, Old Deutromony and Bustopher Jones are played by Brian Blessed.
- Count Fosco of The Woman in White, another Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. It's another Melodrama so everybody hams it up, but as the show's primary comic relief and a villain, he's a lot more fun than the other characters.
- Michael Crawford, who originated the role in London, has become one of musical theater's great hams period - from Barnum to The Phantom of the Opera (he originated that role too!) to his concert performances, he puts his whole heart into everything he does.
Non-Musical Ham
- The title character in Doctor Faustus apparently sold his soul to the devil to become MORE of a ham (and he's plenty in the scenes before he does).
- Madame Rosepettle in Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You In The Closet And I'm Feelin' So Sad. (Played by Hermione Gingold in one production.)
- John Barrymore's ghost in I Hate Hamlet and arguably Dierdre as well.
- The Man Who Came to Dinner is another play populated almost entirely by hams, with Sheridan Whiteside as their king.
- Noises Off features ham within ham. The characters are the cast and crew of an over-the-top Farce and perform accordingly, but offstage they're only slightly more subdued.
Other performance forms
- The entire cast of any Gilbert And Sullivan operetta needs to be Large Hams. Even the chorus members.
- The works of Gilbert And Sullivan can basically be described as overacting set to music. This is about 97% of their charm.
- Even allowing for this, the Pirate King and the Mikado are in a category all their own.
- Cirque Du Soleil shows also demand everyone to be ready and willing to ham it up when need be, and often without dialogue - or at least intelligible dialogue - to boot. Clowns and/or character roles, in particular, yield the best cuts of ham.
- Anyone in a Pantomime is required to be one of these, the bigger the better.
- Any "buffo" role in opera ever.
Tabletop Games
- Seemingly every person of higher rank in the Imperium of Man, Chaos, or other factions in the Warhammer 40000 universe comes with a large slice of grimdark ham.
- "KILL! MAIM! BURN! KILL! MAIM! BURN! KILL! MAIM! BURN! KILL! MAIM! BURN! KILL! MAIM! BURN! KILL! MAIM! BURN! KILL! MAIM! BURN! KILL! MAIM! BURN!"
- And by the standards of the setting, that's only slighty pushing the hamminess.
- Let's be honest, here. Ham is quite possibly the Orks' Hat.
- Or Khorne's.
BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!
HARRIERS FOR THE CUP!
- CiaphasCain gets his own Large Ham even, in Cain's LastStand, when he gives a propoganda speech to the planet. Even Inquisitor Vail has no comment on it, because quite frankly it's so out of character that it speaks for itself.
- The game also seems to inspire its fans towards approaching the setting with massive amounts of ham. Friendly games tend to involve more ham than a holiday dinner.
- Some of the many alien powers in Cosmic Encounter seem designed to encourage players to play them this way, but especially the Sniveler. ("I don't haaaave as many large hams as yooooou.")
- It's technically possible to play a Dungeons And Dragons barbarian as something other than a side of ham with an axe, but it's nowhere near as much fun.
Video Games
- Hamminess also seems to affect "macho" video game characters, too. See: Captain Gordon, Defender of Earth! from Disgaea and Joachim Valentine (a.k.a. "CHAMPION OF JUSTICE, Grand Papillon!") from Shadow Hearts: Covenant.
- Also from Disgaea, the Dark Adonis,
Vyers Mid-Boss. Disagea 3 has a ton, Master Big Star, Mr. Champloo, Salvatore the Magnificent, Gold Knuckle, and Mao. (The english version is literally Edward Elric under the Berserk Button constantly).
- Fools! You have forgotten the great and terrible King Laharl. For this injustice, he shall burn a vision of horror into your puny minds. HAAAAHAHAHAHA!
- Not to mention Axel the (washed-up) Dark Hero from Disgaea 2. Adell can get pretty Hot Blooded at times, also.
- King Bohan from Heavenly Sword definitely qualifies, mugging for the camera, asking questions on how his generals DO what they do, and pretty much enjoying everything he does.
- Flying Fox, from the same game, also qualifies. "I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE styyyyyyle!".
- Let us not for a moment forget the Ham of Gears Of War : Private Augustus Cole. His usual manner of fighting the enemy involves amusing insults and taunts, which escalates into a Crowning Moment Of Awesome in Gears 2, Act 4 when Delta hacks into the Locust Queen's propaganda and Cole delivers a frenzied slew of insults over the loudspeakers of the entire capital city.
- Dynasty Warriors, Samurai Warriors and the Warriors Orochi crossover games (in short, KOEI's entire Warriors franchise) has this in spades; a majority of the characters, both male and female, act according to an apparently obvious (often "judge a book by a cover" level) archetype.
- SNK's fighting games have their share of Large Hams as it is, but special mention must go to Wolfgang Krauser, voiced by B. J. Love. Krauser's lines range from the slightly narmy "I'LL CHISEL YOUR GRAVESTONE! SLEEEEEP WELL!" to his ending in Fatal Fury Special, in which he bellows out, "WOW! WHAT A TOUGH!!!!!!!!!!!" without even trying to fix the mistranslation.
- Sheogorath and Malacath.
- The Imperial Guards. "BY THE NINE DIVINES! THERE'S BEEN A MURDER!"
- Dagoth Ur in Morrowind.
- "WHAT A FOOL YOU ARE! I'M A GOD! HOW CAN YOU KILL A GOD? WHAT A GRAND AND INTOXICATING INNOCENCE!"
- Most villains in the Metal Gear Solid games qualify for this, particularly Magnificent Bastard Revolver Ocelot and Liquid Snake; when the two end up sharing a body, the ham goes to untold levels. The incredibly melodramatic Death Seeker Fortune is even insultingly called a ham actress by one of the other characters... In this case, Ocelot himself.
- Ghaleon from Lunar: The Silver Star and its remakes and sequels. Especially the first remake.
- FALCON PAAAWWWNCH!
- RICHAAAAARD!
- Bang Shishigami, THE HAMMER OF JUSTICE!!!, from BlazBlue.
- Kratos from God Of War. But the gods help you if you call him that to his face.
- ... which they probably can't, so it's better not to do so at all.
- The person playing Max from Tales Of Eternia was obviously having a blast playing him, exclaiming "YEAH!" with great gusto at every possible opportunity, and generally overacting to hilarious degrees in a ridiculously manly voice. This is all the more noticeable next to most of the rest of the English version voice cast, who, by contrast, tend to sound rather bored or half-asleep at even the most dramatic moments in the game.
- Same thing applies to battle. Even in the Japanese. Everyone else's battle shouts are up to par, but Fog just takes it to the next level with his "BAANING FORCE!" Pity the anime didn't include him.
- Official Tales Of Phantasia English intro, anyone?
Morrison: THOU art at the GATE to the UNDERWORLD... Come forth, THUNDER of the GODS!
Dhaos: WHAT the HECK is THAT!?
Morrison: This ends... HE-YAH! IN-DIG-NAY-SHUN!
- Any final boss will tend towards a maximum of hamminess as the final battle approaches.
- As does, well, most of the Vanguard in Dawn of the New World. Especially the ones affected by Solum's core.
- For that matter, Ratatosk!Emil.
Ratatosk: Lumen, OBEY ME!
- Starting from Destiny 2, any invocation of any Hi-Ougi by any character will do this. Emotionless characters will intone oaths and spells with great gravitas, more Hot Blooded ones let out their Screaming Warrior, and bosses, especially of the final variety, will reach Off The Scale ham levels declaring their intent to rend time, space, and creation.
- In Blazing Sword, the character Wallace is certainly meant to be this way. Also, Devdan/Danved in Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn. "DEVDAN HEARS THE SOUND OF BATTLE!" "Danved fight like 10 men!". Kieran fits this to a degree, but has more elements of a Genki Girl.
- Skrimir also had a LargeHam personality, especially at the start of his country's war. This lessened as the game went on, but he had a larger-than-life persona until the end.
- Kyoshiro Senryo of the Samurai Shodown series is an actual Large Ham actor. However, his overacting fits the kabuki stage perfectly, and he's a huge hit.
- Id and Grahf in Xenogears, as well as Big Joe!
- Bob Page in the final act of Deus Ex. Sure he does a fair bit of begging for his life as your victory becomes more and more likely, but other than that he loves nothing more than to mock you and proclaim himself a god.
- The three other factions in that scene are little better, actually. As you get closer to accomplishing their goals they go on and on about how Right they are for whatever reason.
- The Grand Templar in Deus Ex: Invisible War is another ham. The guy's basically Adolf Hitler, so he's justified in having honed his melodramatic recruiting speeches.
- The voice samples the player has to choose from for the PC of Neverwinter Nights are almost all examples of epic ham. It really makes it hard to play a taciturn character when your PC keeps shouting "My STEEL...will STRIKE TRUE!"
- "Attack! Ah sayyyyyyyyyy, attack!"
- "Prepare to become one... with eternity."
- "DIE! DIE! DIE! DIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEhehehehe..."
- Some of the NPCs' voicesets do this too. Quoth Valen: "Into the flames we leap!"
- King Drake the third from Makai Kingdom, who comes complete with ridiculously overblown posing, pyrotechnics when he says his name, and a leitmotif that sounds like someone's national anthem. Oh, and he's voiced by Norio Wakamoto of all things. His hamminess is the major reason why the other overlords consider him a first-class twat.
- Sanger Zonvolt from Super Robot Wars becomes one of these in battle. Many characters have In The Name Of The Moon speeches, but his consists of loudly declaring his name, his self-appointed title of "the sword that smites evil", a very loud battle cry, and a post-mortem reminder that there's nothing his BFS can't cut through. This may or may not be preceded by him telling his enemies to "Shut up! And listen!"
- Agnus in Devil May Cry 4. Dante even engages him in what appears to be a battle to see who can be the most ham in one cut scene.
- Dante (or anyone) still has yet to top the infamous: "I SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE ONE TO FILL YOUR DARK SOUL WITH LIIIIIII~IIIIIIGHT!"
- On that note; Mundus in the same game. "Dante, I will return... And I will RULE THIS WOOOOOOOOOOORLD!"
- "And now...my soul...IS SAYING IT WANTS TO STOP YYYOOUUUUU!!!!"
- "Is...sanity! The price to pay...FOPOWWAH?!"
- How the hell did we forget Arkham?! Seriously, he's the hammiest character in 3. "Now, after two millenniums of confinement, it can at LAST fulfill the PURPOSE for which it was INTENDED!"
- A lot of the dialogue in those Castlevania games that actually have dialogue, especially Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness due to the use of fairly accurate but still excessive Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe. But the Ham-hat goes off to the English dub of Symphony of the Night, especially this legendary exchange between Dracula and Richter Belmont, sadly retranslated in the PSP remake:
Richter: "DIE monster! You don't BELONG in this world!"
Dracula: "It was not by MY hand that I am once again given FLESH! I was called here by HUMANS who wish to pay ME Tribute!"
Richter: "TRIBUTE?!! You steal men's SOULS and make them your SLAVES!"
Dracula: "Perhaps the same can be said of ALL religions."
Richter: "Your words are as empty as your SOUL! Mankind ILL NEEDS a savior such as YOU!"
Dracula: "WHAT IS A MAN?! A MISERABLE LITTLE PILE OF SECRETS! But enough talk...HAVE AT YOU!"
- Portrait of Ruin gives us Brauner
Brauner: "THIS IS ART!!"
- While fighting both Albus and Barlowe in Order of Ecclesia, they tend to ham it up pretty well. Especially Barlowe's high-pitched, maniacal cackling he makes when he flies across the room.
- Minsc from the Baldur's Gate series is a Boisterous Bruiser-flavored ham with his constant shouting of battlecries and enthusiasm.
"I grow tired of shouting battlecries when fighting this mage! Boo will finish his eyeballs ONCE AND FOR ALL so he DOES NOT RISE AGAIN! EVIL! MEET MY SWORD!'' SWOOOOOORD! MEEEEEET! EEEEEEEEVIIIIIIIIIL!"
- His Evil Counterpart Korgan is nearly as bad with his over-the-top Violent Glaswegian acting. Most of the villains get some epic Feed Me lines, but most of them, with the possible exception of Irenicus, also know when calmness is called for.
- The Command And Conquer RTS series of games is legendary for its wonderfully cheesy FMV cutscenes and a healthy dose of DeadpanSnarkerey, but the Red Alert games take it to a whole other level of, er... enthusiasm. A few specific examples:
- In-game, you have the Tesla Troopers, who toss off BondOneLiners such as "Burn, baby, burn!!" in a cheesy Ahnuld accent.
- On the Soviet side, there's Stalin himself, who gets nuttier (and hammier) as the game progresses, The psychic Yuri, who seems to be channeling Bela Lugosi for the entire game, and the most Hamtacular of all - Premier Romanov, who will only let go of the scenery when they pry it from his cold, dead jaws.
- For the Allies, there's President Dugan, a No Celebrities Were Harmed version of Bill Clinton, and General Carville, who serves his Ham Texas-style.
- All in all, the Soviet Campaign is far more Ham-heavy than the Allies. It may be something in the vodka.
- Command And Conquer 3 outdoes them all by including Billy Dee Williams who speaks EVERY line in the same tone used by Lando Calrissian when hitting on Princess Leia. It gets creepy when he's talking about the death of millions of people this way. Then theres Joseph D. Kucan who returns as Kane, with more Ham then ever before.
"Go ahead my son. Push the button. Inscribe your place in history with the blood of GDI. "
"How could my own brothers believe that what transpired at the Temple Prime did not unfold exactly as I had planned? Of course I could not have planned for an ambush BY MY OWN FORCES!"
- In the intro to Kane's Wrath, Kane's epic speech is so hammy that it comes complete with earthquakes punctuating his sentences.
- Command And Conquer: Red Alert 3 has the hammiest cast list possible — Tim Curry, Jonathan Pryce, J.K. Simmons, and George Takei. The film sets which haven't been chomped to pieces by the actors are strewn with awesome levels of cheese and ham. ALL the actors seems to having the time of their lives - especially Tim Curry, who dominates any scene he's in.
- And in a marked contrast to RA 2, the Allied campaign is the hammiest of them all-Eva is about the only one who isn't consistently munching on scenery and pork alike every second she's on screen, and even she has her moments. The Soviets are no slouches, either, but the Empire campaign leaves something to be desired in the ham department-the Imperial actors would be hammy in any other game, but simply can't match the Allies and Soviets.
- The Red Alert 3: Uprising expansion is set to feature Malcolm McDowell and Ric Flair. EA is trying to create some sort of Ham Singularity (or "Aporkolypse.")
- The Ace Attorney series typically has several hams in each one (despite having little voice acting). Although a special nod goes to Damon Gant from the first game, and Luke Atmey from the third, both with dramatic gestures, thunder-splitting personalities and dramatic theme music.
- Let's not forget the awesome haminess of "OBJECTION!", "TAKE THAT!", "HOLD IT!", and most recently, "GOTCHA!" Particularly enjoyable when the lawyers get into shouting matches with each other. "OBJECTION!" "OBJECTION!" "I SAID OBJECTION!" "I SAID OBJECTION FIRST!"
- Don't forget Redd White.
- And Valant Gramarye.
- Godot's ability to consume ungodly amount of coffee is a direct result of the sheer density of his hamminess creating a singularity in his metabolism.
- Both Pey'j and Double H in Beyond Good And Evil ratched up the ham to ridiculous levels (Pey'j in the most literal sense possible, since he's a talking pig and all.) Pey'j is a Boisterous Bruiser-ish, Texan-accented ham with a wide variety of bizarre euphemisms and quips to his name, plus the always-useful SWEET JESUS! Double H, on the other hand, appears to be an immigrant from a deliciously awful action movie, complete with gutteral growl, random military wisdom, and an utterly ridiculous Catch Phrase. CARLSON AND PEETERS!
- Maximillian Roivas and Pius Augustus both engage in some deliciously hilarious hamming in Eternal Darkness.
- Some of the enemy commanders from Supreme Commander serve a large side of ham with their taunts to the player, including Commander Godwyn (Operation Unlock) and Commander Eris (Operation Metal Shark and Operation Defrag). The largest ham award, however, goes to Commander Ariel, of Operation Shining Star. At any given moment, she's just barely restraining a maniacal evil witch laugh.
- Blizzard tends to ham up the voice acting in all their games with delightful results, but the crowning glory is the opera event in World Of Warcraft's Karazan instance. Merely reading a transcription of the script doesn't really do justice to the voice actor's Brian Blessed-inspired performance and the audience going "oooooh! ahhhhhh!"
- Kael'thas definitely qualifies, especially his death emote in the Magisters' Terrace instance:
My demise accomplishes nothing! The Master will have you! You will drown in your own blood! The world shall burn! Aaaghh!
- Kael'thas is wonderfully hammy. He just never seems to stop talking.
- Illidan Stormrage would like to take this time to remind you that "You are NOT prepared!" to "Feel the Hatred of TEN THOUSAND YEARS!"
- Speaking of the opera event, Romulo and Julianne are made of this trope. Especially the former, whose dramatic yelps remind you of the main character in Space Mutiny.
- "I am not some simple jester! I am Nielas Aran!"
- "Who are you? What do you want?! STAY AWAY FROM ME!!!
- Really now, if there are any raid bosses, pre-Burning Crusade in particular, who don't fit this trope, their lines certainly don't stick in the memory the way the truly hammy ones do.
- Burning Crusade is chock full of these. Aeonus pretty much the best example of voice of the legion, Talon King Ikiss is also good one "Ikiss cut you...pretty..RAAAAWK...slice you...YEEEESSSS..yes.".
- And how could anyone forget Blackheart the Inciter's "I see dead people", "You fail! MUHAHAHA..HAHAHA!" "Time for fun!"
- Possibly epitomized by the Headless Horseman. His page on Wowwiki has some quotes of his on it, but without voice acting, much of the effect is lost.
- Wrath of the Lich King is not without its share of pork product. The dialogue between Thassarian and Leryssa on top of En'kilah needs to be heard to be believed.
- Malygos. Both the prefight talking and the over the top violence he threatens on you.
- The first ingame cinematic isn't entirely without ham either.
Arthas! The blood of your father, of your people, demands Justice!
- Light's Hope Chapel must have some kind of Ham Aura.
and
Morgraine: Soldiers of the Scourge! Death Knights of Acherus! Minions of Darkness! —->Hear the call of the highlord! RISE!
Lord Maxwell Tyrosus: Stand fast brothers and sisters! The light WILL PREVAIL!
- Because it needs to be said... Yogg-Saron. Bonus points for being near-literally made of mouths to ham with. Those centuries of lockup? Practice.
- The fight with Instructor Rasuvious is particularly hammy.
Instructor Rasuvious: I'm just getting warmed up!
Instructor Rasuvious: You should've stayed home!
Instructor Rasuvious: Next time, bring more friends!
- Ansem from Kingdom Hearts ( Actually, Xehanort. The true "Ansem" is actually very good at avoiding this), especially during the epic Final Boss battle:
Ansem: So, you have come this far and STILL you understand NOTHING. Every light must fade, every heart return to DARKNESS!
- His Nobody, Xemnas, is this to a lesser degree. "Hearts are power! Nothingness iiiis eternaaaaaal!"
- While perhaps only a sandwich compared to the honey-glazed goodness of Ansem /Xehanort, Maleficent in the first game also is a bit hammy.
- A bit? Do you remember "THE TRUE DARKNESS!" from the first KH?
- "You think you can defeat me? ME, THE MISTRESS OF ALL EVIL!?"
- Saïx in Berserk Mode could give Ansem The Seeker Of Darkness a run for his money, which is an interesting change, since he's The Stoic otherwise.
Saïx: ALL SHALL BE LOST TO YOU!
Saïx: I WILL LEAVE YOU WITH NOTHING!
- Razputin from Psychonauts. He's voiced by Richard Horvitz, who almost exclusively plays Large Hams in small bodies. Raz isn't quite up to the Zim extreme, but he does get some good ones:
- Despite not having any voiced dialogue, Rawk Hawk from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is insanely hammy. This is fitting, though—he's a professional fighter, and grandstanding is part of the biz. If you mess with the Hawk, you're gonna get RAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWKED!
- The King of Hyrule in the Legend of Zelda CD-i games is worth the price of admission alone. "Mah boi! This peace is what all true warriors strive for?" "Enough! My ship sails in the morning. ...I wonder what's for dinner?" Ganon is also fairly impressive: "Join me, Link, and I will make your face the grrrreatest in Koridai! Or else you will die!"
- You DARE bring light to my lair?! YOU MUST DIE!!!!!!!!!!!! *disco lightning fingers*
- AAAARRRGH! THE CHAINS! NOOOOOOO!!!''' YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE LAST OF ME!
- NOOOOOOO!!! NOT INTO THE PIT! IT BUUUURNS!
- Worthless Koridian! YOU MUST BE HARDENED WITH FIRE! GO AND KILL!
- For The Legend Of Zelda games that actually exist, Wind Waker's Ganondorf: YOUR GODS DESTROYED YOU!!
- Sinistar. He hungers! RUN, COWARD! RUN, RUN, RUN, RUN!
- Pretty much every iteration of Warhammer 40000: Dawn Of War has (at least!) one large ham, but pretty much everyone involved had to take a step back to let Brother-Captain Indrick Boreale from Soulstorm pass...
- Our enemies hide in METAL BOXES! We...We should TAKE their METAL BOXES!!!!
- Damn-near every commander in Dark Crusade had a moment or two, and two commanders in particular, Eliphas the Inheritor and Warboss Gorgutz, were nothing but ham.
- Gorgutz: "'Ere I come, Chaos boyz! 'Ope ya weren't bored waitin!"
- Eliphas: "Your subtlety astounds me, Ork."
- Let's not forget Do W 2.
- Force Commander: "SHOW ME WHAT PASSES FOR FURY AMONGST YOUR MISBEGOTTEN KIND!!"
- The status reports are made of this practically, some thing in the Space Marine genome must make them be literally unable to stop chewing on the scenery given how every single time they say something this Trope applies.
- "THEY FIRE UPON US AND WE SHALL RETURN IT!"
- "THE ENEMY WISHES TO FIGHT, BROTHERS! LET US INDULGE THEM!"
- "THE ENEMY HAS CLAIMED ONE OF OUR BATTLE BROTHERS. THE ENEMY MUST PAY!"
- "ONE OF OUR BATTLE BROTHERS HAS DIED. DO NOT LET HIS SACRIFICE BE IN VAIN!"
- It doesn't stop there, you cannot go for two seconds in this game without hearing a line hammed to hell and back
- Sam Witwer's (!) voicing of Emperor Palpatine in The Force Unleashed is almost as hammy as the original.
- Albedo from Xenosaga definetely fits this trope
- His "AHHHH, YEEEESSS… FEED ME YOUR HOSTILITY, PIERCE ME WITH YOUR HATRED!!" was certainly full of Narm.
- "I will show you the greatest nightmare!"
- It's hard to say which one is the larger ham in Halo: the High Prophet of Truth or Gravemind.
- "You are, all of you, vermin. Cowering in the dirt, thinking... what? That you might escape the coming fire? Your world will burn until its surface is but glass!"
- "Child of my enemy, why have you come? I offer no forgiveness for father's sins cast to his son."
- And then there's Sargeant Johnson.
- ''When i joined the corps, we didn't have any fancy shmancy tanks! We had STICKS! Two sticks and a rock for the whole platoon! And we had to SHARE the rock!
- Though he usually doesn't yell, Shipmaster "Half-Jaw" is just awsome every time he speaks.
- Hell, once they started speaking "English" in Halo 2, it became clear that most of the Elites were hams. It's amazing, considering their odd mouth shapes, how well they're able to chew the scenery.
- The titular Elite Beat Agents. "Are you ready!? Three! Two! One! GOOO!!!" Cue Deep Purple's Highway Star, or maybe Jumping Jack Flash... Makes No Difference?
- OUEN! DAI-SEI-KOUUUUUUUU!
- It helps that the leader of the EBA is Ham Incarnate. "Agents are... GO!" It can't be a coincidence that his name is Commander Khan.
- THE MURRAY.
- Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy, in the case of every single villain in the game, variously falling under the heading of Crowning Moment Of Awesome, Crowning Moment Of Funny, Nightmare Fuel, or just plain Narm.
- Snake? Snake?! SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE!!!
- Several of the Purify Weird Soul moves in Valkyrie Profile are an excuse to sacrifice an enemy to the altar of ham. Some people even build their party specifically for maximum ham (it helps that a party of Lenneth, Aelia, Jayle, and Shiho is both fairly effective and extremely hammy).
- MY PATH IS STREWN WITH CORPSES!
- In the same vein, Lezard Hameth in the sequel gets progressively creepier and hammier.
- Erazor Djinn of Sonic and the Secret Rings is one heck of a ham, especially in the ending.
Erazor: I will not be defeated! If you defeat me, I will simply return, again and again! I AM IMMORTAL! I CANNOT BE VANQUISHED! MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
- Besides the Western Animation example below, Dr. Robotnik/Eggman in the games with voice acting.
Erazor: THE WORLD IS MINE! I cannot be denied by that filthy rat! WHHHHHHYYYYYYY??!?
- Final Fantasy V, one of the siller Final Fantasies, has Exdeath, the biggest ham this side of the VOID! Just as an example, here's one of his hammier lines. Oh, and for bonus points, he actually says it twice over the course of the game.
Exdeath: Time for your viscera to see the light of day! Now die!
- Final Fantasy VI. Kefka isn't shy about expressing his HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE for others.
- "YOU SOUND LIKE CHAPTERS FROM A SELF-HELP BOOKLET!"
- Cid in Final Fantasy X has just two kinds of speaking. Shouting and yelling.
- Dr. Cid from Final Fantasy XII steals scenes with his ham. His son is not impressed with his ham.
- Also Gilgamesh, an optional boss in the Lhusu Mines, who has apparently stolen the swords of all the previous FF heroes. Everything he DOES is hilarious. Even his attacks carry the delicious flavor of ham.
- He was thoroughly hammy in all his previous appearances in various games in the series.
"Let's see how you handle the mighty ME! And by me I mean GILGAMESH! And by handle, I mean DIIIE!"
"Enough expository banter! Now we fight like men! And ladies! And ladies who dress like men! For Gilgamesh...it is morphing time!"
"FOOLS! You face the mightiest warrior in all IVALICE! You face me! GILGAMESH!!! Long have I sought the blade of legend, SCOURED have I the furthest marches, East and West, and now my search brings me here, to YOOOUUU!! 'YOUR WEAPONS ARE FORFEIT TO MEEE!!!"
- And holy crap, Dissidia Final Fantasy takes the hammiest villains (and Shantotto) from across every numbered Final Fantasy game at the time. Sure, some of them are subdued, like Sephiroth and Ultimecia, but the others? There's varying levels of hamminess, but the best of them are screaming just about every attack. But in the interest of space, let's just go with a sampling tray of the different flavors of ham, taken from their EX-Bursts.
Cloud of Darkness: "True darkness! Unleash the SHADOWS! Hmmhmmhaahahaha!" Golbez: "Glide, my inner shadow. Light and dark above you... TRANCEND THE STARS!" Exdeath: "To the silence BEYOND!! Embrace the stillness of eternity..." Level 100 Exdeath: TUUURTLLLE! Kefka: "Be careful! Watch this! ... It's FILLING ME UP!" *kaboom!* "That was titillating!" Kuja: "Curtain rise!" *boom boom boom boom... boomboomboom.... bambambambam* "Here comes the FINALE!" Jecht: "You were just out of luck! C'mon c'mon c'mon c'mon c'mon! This is my show!" Shantotto: "NOW I'M MAD!! Oooohohohohoho! I'm driven to DESTROY!" Gabranth: "By my SWORD! KNOW THIS PAIN! Hmph hm hah! Take your last breath. Surrender now to OBLIVION!!" Chaos: " SHIVER! At the POWER of a God!" ..."You resist in vain!"
- Actually, one of Chaos's normal attacks may be a better example of Ham:
"Face the ultimate! ON YOUR KNEES! FEAR ME! THIS IS THE END!"
- Chaos especially is extremely hammy. Even moreso in the Japanese version. How hammy was he? Guess who voiced him?
- Every single character in Godhand. Especially Gene, who has a smartass wisecrack for every situation and strikes goofy poses after most of his stronger moves. If you actually happen to connect with the impossibly slow yet extremely useful Yes Man Kablam move, he will look around and enjoy being cheered on by an invisible crowd.
Elvis: I'm gettin' hungry, cabrone!!
- Being played by the Gary Oldman, it's no surprise that Sergeant Reznov from Call Of Duty: World At War sounds like this.
- Pretty much par for the course for Star Fox villains. Played with in the character of Andrew Oikonny in Assault, who was obviously a cheesy wannabe villain who was never meant to be taken seriously, and thus plays it way over the top.
- Scolar Visari from Killzone 2 (voiced by the mightly Brian Cox), especially during propaganda videos.
"We shall unleash such terrible vengeance, that generations yet unborn will cry out in anguish!"
- Even when he's cornered by guys with guns, he still manages to sound incredibly intimidating: "And who are you, soldier?"
- Hakha from the first game draws attention to himself with each word that comes out of his mouth, whether he's talking about the mission at hand or making a simple observation.
- Don't forget this exchange...
Rico: "Sev, Garza! Heads up! You've got two companies heading your way!"
Garza: "What's the good news?"
Rico: "YOU GET TO KILL THEM."
- Barry Burton from Resident Evil. As in "a DINING room!" "You would have been a JILL sandwich!" This man is truly the biggest ham in video game history.
- "Just - take - a - look - at - this! It's FOREST! Oh. My. COD!"
- "What a monster! I can't believe - WHAT THE HELL IS THIS PLACE, ANYWAY?!"
- Barry's hamminess is thoroughly topped by Wesker in RE5. How hammy is he? He pretty much spends the entirety of the final chapter engaging in one long monologue after the other, even going so far as the pause in the middle of a fightfight with his gun to Chris' head just so he can keep telling Chris how much of an awesome god he will be.
- Leon from Resident Evil 4 is a walking Large Ham/ Deadpan Snarker. As soon as minor supporting characters start to die, he switches to ham mode. "MIIIIIIIIIIIIIKE!
LUUUUUUUUUISLEEEWWWIIISSS!"
- The twins from Code: Veronica much?
- "You want it? You are not worthy of its power!"
- "Do try to keep me amused, and do not disappoint me by dying too soon. I do want to enjoy this... Eheheheh~"
- "EVERYTHING EVERYTHING EVERYTHING! DAMN IT ALLLL!!!" Edge Maverick, Star Ocean: The Last Hope. True, he did just accidentally cause the blowing up an alternate dimension's Earth, killing billions of people, but the way the scene played out was just hilarious. Not to mention how oddly his emotions are acted in general.
- "AND FROM THAT DAY FORWARD, ANY TIME A BUNCH OF ANIMALS ARE TOGETHER IN ONE PLACE, IT'S CALLED A ZOO! UNLESS IT'S A FARM!" Yup, the Soldier is one of these in every sense. Even his in-game dialogue has such gems as "THIS. IS. MY. WORLD. YOU ARE NOT WELCOME IN MY! WORLD!
- Pretty much every line of dialogue in Team Fortress 2 is the various characters trying to one-up each other in terms of hamminess. Try to find a single line from Team Fortress 2 that shouldn't be typed in all-caps.
- Gentlemen?
- "Hudda hudda huh!"
"MY BLOOD! HE... HE PUNCHED OUT ALL MY BLOOD!"
"I'M GONNA STICK MY THUMBS IN YER EYES AND HANG ON TIL YER DEAD!"
"I AM ZE UBERMENSCH!"
"SANDVICH MAKES ME STROOONG!"
- Well, the Sniper is...less hammy than most others.
- In the Star Craft universe, it's the ones who aren't hams that are rare. While the Ghost may get his Creepy Monotone, he can keep it, because almost everyone else is pure unabridged ham. Third prize: Tassadar's big speech at the beginning of the final mission. Second prize: Terran Firebats. And the grand prize goes to...The Siege Tank. Honorary mentions go to the Terran Marine, the Terran Dropship, the Protoss Zealot, the Terran Wraith, both Protoss Archons, the Zerg Overlord, and the Terran Vulture. Some voice actor was evidently having a lot of fun while recording that game.
- Don't forget the Infested Terrans.
"Live for the Swarm!"
- Samos in all the Jak And Daxter games, joined by Erol in Jak III when he develops Omnicidal Mania. Also, several minor characters, especially the fisherman in the first game.
- Ratchet And Clank loves this trope. With villains names Doctor Nefarious, is there any other way it could go?
- Father Grigori from Half Life 2. The last survivor of Ravenholm, he is a psychotic priest with a shotgun. Half his lines are shouted from rooftops, followed by an unnervingly Evil Laugh. He appears in only one chapter, yet is one of the most memorable things about the game.
- Natla in Tomb Raider: Anniversary and Underworld.
- I AM NICTUS!
- Wild Arms 4. The entire game is like watching a bunch of hammy B-movie actors duke it out but Lambda is particularly hammy, breaking into Manly Tears while monologing about Filgaia's future on more then one occasion.
-
Wake Crasher Wake, the pro wrestler-themed Gym Leader of Pastoria City in the fourth generation of Pokemon games. In the anime, Canalave City Gym Leader Byron also qualifies.
- "My name is..." "JAGUAAAAAR!" "I am the voice of truth!"
- From Big Bang Beat: "SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUPAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODO" "DAIGO EYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYE"
- Though the villains in the first F.E.A.R. game are fairly low-key, Project Origin has Colonel Richard Vanek, who is pretty much physically incapable of not screaming at everyone around him, even when he's talking quietly. Just look at some of his lines, and remember every single one of them is being screamed at the top of his lungs by an extremely irate general officer:
"I DON'T CARE IF ITS KING TUT! YOU FUCKING KILL THEM!"
"ANY AND ALL FUCK-UPS, GET BACK TO ADMIN! WE NEED REINFORCEMENTS!"
"WHY IS THAT FUCKING SOLDIER STILL ALIVE? SOMEBODY JUST FUCKING SHOOT HIM ALREADY!"
- .hack//GU has Haseo who can get pretty hammy, as can Piros the 3rd and Sakaki.
- SKEEEIIIITH!!!
- OVAAAAAAN!!!
- Every Glukkon in Oddworld.
- Alex Mercer channels several hundred pounds of long pork during one mission in Prototype. Must have eaten BRIAN BLESSED at some point.
- NOTHING CAN YOU PROTECT YOU FROM ME! NOT MEN! NOT WEAPONS! NOT ARMOR!
- LIKE THAT'S GONNA MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE!
- TAGGART! KEEP RUNNING YOU BASTARD!
- White Knight Leo from Lunar: Eternal Blue.
"I AM NOT WHITE KNIGHT LEO! I AM THE AMAZING MYSTERE!!! PROTECTOR OF THE INNOCENT AND... uh... DEFENDER OF... TRUTH!!!"
- Doctor Neo Cortex and Doctor Nitrus Brio are especially hammy in the Radical Entertainment era of the Crash Bandicoot series.
- Cortex: And I shall call this robot... THE DOOMINATOR!!
- Cortex: I promise. From now on, I'll be more rancid! More villainous! More horrible! HORRIBLE!!
- Brio: I... was in... the first... GAAAAAAAME!!
- Brio: Strike him with your large man-hand!
- Regulus of Demigod has a few gems.
- I came from Heaven, to send them to hell!
- Many Dance Dance Revolution announcers, particularly the one from DDR MAX through ''Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA2:
"LET'S MAX!" "That was so fantastic...I was almost dazzled! Can't stop crying...buckets of tears!" "YEEEEEEEEEEE-HAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWW!!" "OH MY GOD!!" "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!"
Web Comics
- OTHAR TRYGGVASSEN, Gentleman Adventurer! from Girl Genius definitely fits this, especially in the radio play.
- Lampshaded in this comic (of a radio play). Othar has been "kidnapped" by Ferretina, the Weasel Queen, famous for devouring young man, grilled with cheese. One of the closing questions is "And what kind of cheese goes best with grilled ham?"
- Ferretina herself qualifies, too: "I think it's the loneliness that makes a...person begin to have...strange thoughts. Thoughts that drive her to explore the twisted, blasphemous back alleys of science. That allows - no - forces her to create monstrosities! Monstrosities fit only to unleash upon those sanctimonious villagers who reviled and mocked her because of her father's experiments!"
- Hamminess and chewing the scenery seem to be a consistent side effect of the Spark. Othar and Ferretina are just the ones who do it when they aren't going off on a Mad Scientist rant.
- The Jagermonsters have tendencies that way as well.
"Ve kin only redeem ourselfs vit honourable death!"
"Yez, svift, painful, honourable death!"
"Hyu knife, brodder!"
"Right here, brodder!"
"*sigh* Ve didn't gets caught, hyu eediots."
"Whew!"
- Dr. Disaster from Gunnerkrigg Court. He starts hamming it up with his very first lines: "Spacemonauts! The Earth is in peril!" It's unclear whether he's like this all the time, or just acting.
- Gee, you'd expect a guy named Doctor Disaster to be low-key and sedate...
- Ironically, it's revealed that he has a crush on Jones, the resident Stoic.
- Misfile New Knight Templar Xaphrael makes his entrance in this strip. "That voice, it's a Large Angelic Ham!" And the Whole Cryptic Conversation that follows it.
- Xykon and, to a lesser degree, Lord Shojo, appear to be enjoying themselves a little more than is entirely healthy. Both of them being dead and all. Belkar almost qualifies, being a SEXY SHOELESS GOD OF WAR!, but flunks out on the "large" part, being a little too sh-URK!
- The main character of Everyday Heroes. "Who am I? ... I
ham am MISTER MIGHTY!" Lampshaded here when his wife doesn't join in the hamfest.
Web Original
- Yami/Pharaoh from Yu Gi Oh The Abridged Series.
"I can do anything I want, because I'm voiced by DAN GREEN!"
- Dr Horribles Sing Along Blog: Nathan Fillion puts the "ham" in Captain Hammer. But really, he's playing a smarmy, self-absorbed superhero caricature—it would be impossible to portray the character any other way.
- His Crowning Moment of Ham might be right after he tries to shoot Dr. Horrible with the Freeze Ray and sings "WHY?!?" complete with accompanying music. The sheer hamminess of this moment really cannot be conveyed in words.
- Of course, the ham is overcome by the jerk in him, as while he sings that hammy "WHY?!?" he gives Dr. Horrible the finger.
- Doctor Horrible himself becomes Doctor Hamible in the last act, during the song "Slipping."
- The Hammer is my
penis acting.
- O'Malley from Red Vs Blue may very well be the largest ham in the history of Machinima.
- Strong Bad from Homestar Runner.
Strong Bad: Well, I heard a techno song one time that went like, "Doom doom doom doom", and then this other part came in and it was like, "Dudalado! Dudalado! Dudalado! Dudalado!" And there's always this high-pitched noise, you know, like a siren that's like, "DOO-DA-DA-DIDDLE!! DOO-DA-DA-DIDDLE!!!" And then there's the obligatory old movie quote from some sci-fi movie, it's like, "The system is down! DOO-DA-DA-DIDDLE!!! DOO-DA-DA-DIDDLE!!!!"
- Liam Black in Survival Of The Fittest, however, this is largely Narm
- "Oh and a girl with silky brown hair and a FUCKING LASER!"
- "Then the person threatening James... 'IS YOU!
- According to Candescence, the character's handler, this was very intentional.
- This is one of the handler Ragged Druid's trademarks, along with Small Name Big Ego and Dont Explain The Joke.
- The lonelygirl15 recurring villain Ted McKinley (otherwise known as PharmaGuy), especially in his first appearance.
- "I'm the LORD of the HARVEST!" '''BRING IT DOWN, BRING IT DOWN!"'''
- Bottom of Wormtooth Nation hams it up in every scene. This is understandable since he is based on the character of the same name from A Midsummer Nights Dream.
- There Will Be Brawl is a series that plays Melo Drama so straight that it's almost a parody, so this kind of acting is a requirement. Ganondorf and Wario deliver.
- "And now, a dramatic reading of a real break up letter from a real person...
- "THIS is TRUE LUNACY!"
- A Very Potter Musical has a larger than normal quotient of these, with Snape, Draco, and Voldemort all qualifying. Snape is by far the most egregious example.
- Dumbledore is up there as well, especially when he starts lapsing into a Yiddish accent. Really, half of the play is the actors all trying to out-ham each other... which doesn't detract from it at all.
- Im A Marvel And Im ADC: Green Goblin (who's also a big fan of Willem *DAFOE!*'s performance) and Deadpool.
- Pretty much everything Labtech X says in zOMG!.
- Mugal in the Fan Film Godzilla vs the Kaiju Killer.
- "NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERD!"
Western Animation
- Coach McGuirk from Home Movies, especially in the Episode where he's deprived of sleep.
- Eric Cartman in South Park.
- I think you mean Cartman's ass is a large ham!
- AY! Screw you, Stan! I'll kick you square in the nuts!
- Megatron from Transformers: Beast Wars. He's over-the-top because he's an egotistical megalomaniac with a flair for drama, but a credible threat nonetheless; suave, intelligent, and ruthless. At one point, he mugs for the camera while stepping on someone he'd just shot to prevent them from getting up. His megalomania is rather charming in its way, yeeeessss....
- And he's not the only Megatron/Galvatron to have a taste for pork. Note that the Unicron Trilogy version is also voiced by David Kaye. While he's not supposed to actually be the Beast Wars version, the ham will sometimes emerge. Especially in Armada, in which he is obsessed with his Evil Laugh. (Basically, take his laugh from this clip and multiply it by basically every episode. At times, he'll even start laughing, wind down... then spontaneously start up again.)
- Megatron is a Large Ham in pretty much every version. (he's even in the Film section up there) The Original Series Megatron loved his Evil Laugh and his speeches, and even the Animated version gets his moments of ham.
- Frank Welker did say, about his role as G1 Megatron, that "my goal in this business was always to see if I could make [Peter Cullen] laugh water through his nose".
- The Animated version of Starscream seems to have some level of this, and still quite dangerous. When Bumblebee blasts him with electricity while he was talking to Megatron, his reply is to grab Bumblebee, pull him to within an inch of his face, and shout, "You interrupted MY SPEEEEEEEEEEECH!"
- In Cybertron, after growing to giant size BY TRANSFORMER STANDARDS, that series' Starscream becomes an incredibly large ham. And Megatron's hamminess only increases after he becomes Galvatron.
- The Original Series Starscream was hamtastic at times too. And speaking of...
- Cobra Commander, "RETREAT, RETREAT!". But he was out-hammed by Serpentor. "THIS, I COMMAND!"
- "I am Wreck-Gar! I dare to be stupid! See above—under "Music".
- Rampage from Beast Wars, especially in his first appearance. "Yes, feel it! FEEL THE FEAR!"
- In the same series, Terrorsaur seems to get significantly hammier in "Power Surge" after being supercharged.
- Who could forget the literally planet-sized ham that is Unicron? Especially when he's voiced by Orson Welles himself.
- Mentok the Mindtaker on Harvey Birdman Attorney At Law, who constantly plays up his own powers when he's not being a Deadpan Snarker. Say it with me now... Ooooweeee ooweeeeeeee!
- Yosemite Sam from Looney Tunes. Among other things, he's the self-proclaimed "Fastest gun north, south, east AAAAAAAND west of the Pecos!" and rarely speaks in anything below a full-bodied shout.
- Zapp Brannigan in Futurama. In fact, the character was originally pitched as "What if William Shatner were the captain of the Enterprise instead of Kirk?"
- Also from Futurama, Calculon, with his literally "unholy.. acting.. TALENT!!"
- Your ham fills me with [beat] sorrowww, [beat] ANGER!, [beat] ffeaear, every emotion an actor can display.
- And all of the Omicron Persei VIII aliens, especially Lrrr and his wife Ndnd. (Would you like to buy a vowel?)
- This concept of ham CONFUSES and INFURIATES US!!
- MORBO!!
- HAM DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY!!!
- "Welcome, to the WORLD of TOMORROW!"
- Hilariously lampshaded in the movie Beast With A Billion Backs:
I got a part in a fancy DVD-movie! It's only one line but I'm gonna ham it up like you wouldn't believe!
- Number 9 Guy does this Into the Wild Green Yonder, with coaching from Fry:
Nine: So dig this, Fry. Our commune has been monitoring the universe's life energy for, like, a really long time, and we're grokking some super weird junk.
Fry: Um, I don't mean to be rude, but it's kind of hard to take you seriously when you say junk like "grok" and "junk."
Nine : What about "commune"?
Fry: Especially "commune." Come on, it's the fate of the universe, puff it up a little. Like you could say your ancient order is sensing deep upheaval in the cosmic life energy field.
[Everybody murmurs.]
Nine: Okay. I'll try. So, like, a really, really long time ago... [Fry motions "longer" with his hands.] Eons ago
- Storm felt the need to shout loud proclamations and poetic verses while using her powers in X-Men. One of Rogue's very first lines in the series is a comment that she should ease up a little.
- Hell, Storm even said normal things dramatically, like once when she and Cyclops had to split up, Storms parting words were "I SHALL MEET YOU AT THE MONORAIL!"
- After seven years of wonderful, nuanced work on Star Trek The Next Generation, Patrick Stewart now does the voice of Bullock, Stan's CIA boss on American Dad, and he is a huge ham.
- Speaking of Patrick Stewart and overly-sized pork products, he parodied Sean Connery's porky cameo as King Richard in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves by delivering a high-fat-and-cholesterol-filled performance of same in Robin Hood: Men In Tights. Because, as everyone knows... "It's good to be the king."
- Caliburst, a Nebulan Targetmaster from Transformers, was such a ham actor on Nebulos, it's said that his work isn't appreciated so much as endured. He does, however, put up a convincing front of bravery in and out of battle, encouraging his partner Slugslinger in the process.
- "Long ago in a distant land, I, Aku, The shapeshifting Master of Darkness, unleashed an unspeakable ham! But, a foolish samurai warrior, wielding a magic sword, stepped forth to oppose me. Before the final blow was struck, I twore open a portal in time, and flung him into the future, where my evil is LAW! Now the fool seeks to return to the past, and undo the future that is AKU!!!"
- "ENOUGH! This next story is true to its utmost detail! Once, there was an all-powerful, all-mighty wizard, and a pathetic little samurai. And the wizard DESTROYED HIM!!! THE END!"
- "Once upon a time, there was a cute little girl WITH GREAT FLAAAMING EYEBROWS!"
- "Samurai, samurai...WHY WON'T YOU DIEEEE!!"
- Limburger from the original Biker Mice From Mars series was a bit like this on most occasions and also a Ted Baxter. From the new series there's Ronaldo Rump and also Hairball.
- The Batman version of the Joker. The DCAU version to a lesser extent.
- The DCAU Joker was particularly hammy in an early episode "The Last Laugh", with lines such as "You're going to be cooked like a griiilled cheeeeese sandwich!" and, lest we forget, "YOU KILLED CAPTAIN CLOWN!!!"
- It's probably telling that the Joker had the most frequent Do Not Adjust Your Set plots, so he could broadcast his villainous (and hammy) acts to the world. Hell, let's just say if you're playing the Joker, you're gonna ham it up.
- He is being played by Mark HAMill, after all...
- The Scarecrow in BTAS. Especially when he's getting hauled back to Arkham:
Scarecrow: "I am the master of fear! The lord of despair! Cower before me and witness terror!"
Harley Quinn: "Hi, Professor Crane."
Scarecrow: "Good evening, child... Worship me, fools! Worship me! Scream hosannas of anguish to Scarecrow, the all-terrible God of fear!"
- FOOLISH FOOLS! I will DESTROY your... PIGGY MEATS with DOOM!
- Ham seems to be a class feature of Irkens, whether it's the Almighty Tallest ("Soon, all the races of the universe will serve... the IRKEN EMPIRE!"), Tak ("I should have been an Invader! I should have been part of the Great Assigning! I shouldn't have to be stealing this planet from you!"), or even little Skoodge ("So that no Irken boot has to come into contact with any unsavoury alien filth! HOO-AH!")
- Race feature. We're obviously dealing with a race that gets "Conditional Bonus Feat: Skill Focus (Ham It Up)."
-
Earthlings The rest of the universe can be pretty hammy too.
- Just about any character played by Richard Horvitz is going to be a ham in some fashion or another. See: The hammily demented Daggit Beaver of The Angry Beavers, the hammily moronic Billy of The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy, and the hammily... well, I don't know what to call him—Rodney in Squirrel Boy.
- Since Daggit was mentioned, Norbit Beaver also qualifies as a Ham.
- Powerpuff Girls. "You cannot defeat me, for I am undefeatable, I am Moooooojoooo Jojo! That is my name, Mojo Jojo. The name I am telling you, for it is mine."
- While we're on the subject, Him fits this too.
- The Venture Brothers' Doctor Orpheus:
Do not be too hasty to enter. For I had... TACO BELL FOR LUNCH.
- And the Monarch can ham it up with the best of them when he's in his full-on villain mode.
- IGNORE ME!!!
- Many Disney villains, especially in the animated canon. The Wicked Queen in Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs is the first in that canon and a particularly wonderful Nightmare Fuel example. (This may have a lot to do with her being voiced by Lucille LaVerne, a stage and silent film actress. She's also visually based on Kate Hepburn.)
- "That was today? Oh, I feel simply awful."
- Cruella De Vil is another example. Specially as played by Glenn Close in the Live Action Adaptation.
- Who can forget the enormous ham from hell, Hades.
- No one hams like Gaston. It helps that he bears an uncanny resemblance to Bruce Campbell.
- Forte in Beauty And The Beast: Enchanted Christmas, voiced by Tim Curry.
- Except maybe Pat Carroll's Ursula the Sea-Witch from The Little Mermaid, who actually turns herself into a very large...octopus...for the finale. She may be the first and only Disney villain to actually shake her moneymakers for the camera.
- Well, the only one until Alameda Slim, who not only dances, but can "YODEL ADLE ELDE IDLE OOOOOO!" No ham is complete without a Las Vegas performer-esque shiny outfit.
- For pure, unadulterated, lean Grade A ham, nothing beats a thick, juicy slab of Jafar.
- "GENIE! My second wish! I wish to be the most POWERFUL sorceror... IN THE WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORLD! AH HA HA HA HA HAAAA!"
- Even better, in the second film he gets a whole musical number, every line of which seems to made entirely of pun filled ham.
- Clayton from Tarzan, as played by BRIANBLESSED.
- Kazar the wildebeest from The Wild, voiced by William Shatner. Also Nigel to some extent.
- Maleficent. Even the name screams "Ham!"
- Zurg from Toy Story 2. Even more hammy in the spinoff series Buzz Lightyear Of Star Command.
- "CURSE YOU, PERRY THE PLATYPUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!"
- As mentioned above, Ratigan, who may be Vincent Price's hammiest performance— and that's saying a lot.
- No one's listed Magica DeSpell yet? She gets so carried away.
- In Avatar The Last Airbender, the protagonists end up watching a play about themselves, which turns out to consist almost entirely of large hams. Special mentions go to the actors "playing" Katara, Ozai, and Zuko.
- "I'm so filled with hope that I'm TEARBENDING!"
- While the above quote is beautiful, nothing in that episode tops "HONOOOOOOOOOOR!"
- Also, there's, y'know, Sokka...
- Before any of that, we were given the "Professional Earthbenders", especially "The Boulder." Let's see...he's a pastiche of Dwayne Johnson, both in looks (sort of) and personality (Johnson's legendary character The Rock), and is voiced by another professional wrestler, Mick Foley, who is a friend of The Rock's and can be — and has been — as over-the-top and cheesy as other wrestlers. One listen to The Boulder's lines tells you that Mick was having a grand old time voicing The Boulder.
- Please don't overlook the tremendous performance of George Takei as the Warden on the Earthbender prison platform in season 1. He was given great material with which to work as well:
Warden: Well, what was it, a buffalo or a bison?
Guard: Eh... uhhh... not sure what the difference is, but that's not really the point is it, sir?
Warden: I'LL decide what the point is, fool! [throws guard overboard]
Warden: [to other guard] YOU! Wake up the Captain! Search the entire rig!
Guard: Uh, sir...
Warden: WHAT?!
Guard: Uh, that was the Captain you just threw overboard.
Warden: Then wake up someone I haven't thrown overboard and search the rig! There's something going on here and I don't like it!
- And let's not forget Ozai in the finale: "You're weak! Just like the rest of your people! They did not deserve to exist in this world, in my world! Prepare to join them! Prepare to DIE!"
- Duffman! Oooooh Yeah!
- Three words: "Agggh, Sideshow Bob!"
- Krusty The Clown.
- SIDESHOW MEL takes this to RRRIDICULOUS new HEEEIGHTS!!
- The Tick. His conversational style is the verbal equivalent of What Do You Mean Its Not Awesome, even when he isn't monologuing about Good and Evil.
- Not to mention that in the live version, he was played by scene connoisseur Patrick Warburton.
- Most of the villains would qualify too, particularly the Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight
- Syndrome from The Incredibles flip-flops between dangerously understated and hammier than a Honeybaked warehouse, especially when he's enjoying himself. In fact, he gets so hammy that he actually loses Mr. Incredible.
Syndrome: [with Mr. Incredible in his tractor beam] I am Syndrome! [wild hand gestures] I am your nemesis! I— [Syndrome's hand gestures accidentally turn off the tractor beam and Mr. Incredible goes flying.] Oh, brilliant.
- Scooby Doo: Scooby and possibly Shaggy.
- The Narrator of Dave The Barbarian, whose thrill-packed Purple Prose is often hilariously at odds with the mundane activities shown onscreen.
- Freakazoid!. Know what? Considering both Freakazoid and the previously-mentioned Chuckles the Silly Piggy, can we just say that any character voiced by Paul Rugg falls under this?
- I guess so. Mr. Director from Animaniacs and Nostradamus from Histeria! also fall under this, as does Rugg's live-action character of Manny the Uncanny from Disney's One Saturday Morning.
- The Histeria! episode with the Wright Brothers has Froggo asking them for a bag of marshmallows and a crate of leeches, and then later for a tambourine and a vat of spam; both times they tell him no. His responses: "NO?! NO?! OH NOO! NO, IT CAN'T BE!! AAAHHHHH!!!!" and "NO! NO! NO!! THIS IS A DISASTER!!!"
- Most cartoon knocks off of Elvis Presley in cartoons such as Johnny Bravo.
- Prof. Cinnamon J. Scudwerth.
- Oberon in Gargoyles. He pulls it off, too.
- Also to a lesser extent, Matt Frewer as Jackal. Come to think of it, Matt Frewer is a ham overall. So... says... the LEADER!
- And, of course, Puck.
"Don't interrupt! I'm on a roll!"
- LaMonte T Montogomery (voiced by John Goodman) in Bee Movie. He evens put on an over-the top act when the main character's best friend stings him on the behind.
- Oogie Boogie in The Nightmare Before Christmas.
- Jack
Hammington Skellington can be pretty hammy too. Seriously: "I AM THE HAM PUMPKIN KING!!!"
- Any villain voiced by Tim Curry in an animated movie. Especially Hexxus from Ferngully.
- Rasputin from Anastasia and Ludmilla from Bartok The Magnificent.
- Speaking of Rasputin, there's also Merlock from the Duck Tales movie... heck, just put anything voiced by Christopher Lloyd.
- Mr Blik from Catscratch and any other character voiced by Wayne Knight.
- In Reboot, Hexadecimal can go from subdued to large ham on a whim. Usually with a suitable change of face to go with it.
- Greetings and bienvenue, Tropers! You may remember V. V. Argost from his delightful telelvision progam, V. V. Argost's Weird World... Or perhaps from the Xanatos Gambit that's slowly but surely leading him to world domination. Did I mention you have a Mac Guffin he'd very much like back?
- In Adventures Of Sonic The Hedgehog, Long John Baldry did a fantastic portrayal of Dr. Robotnik this way. Here are a few choice lines.
- "Sonic is trapped in there! And the rest of Mobius is out here! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! And it's mine! IT'S MINE! All mine! ALL MINE!!!"
- "How dare anyone on Mobius laugh at the great Dr. Robotnik!? No one makes fun of me! No one! Whoever is responsible for this will be my first prisoner! (jumps into the air) BRING ME THE VILE CREATURE WHO DREW THIS CARTOON!!!"
- "Sonic fell for it! Tails is ours! I'll have to give myself a Prrrromotion!"
- "SnooPING AS usual, I seeeeee..."
- The monologue at the beginning of "Blackbot the Pirate" is a veritable banquet of ham.
- Mok from Rock And Rule:
I don't offer you just anything - I OFFER YOU EVVVVVVVERYTHING!
I'm the biggest thing since World War III!
She can sing or SHE CAN SCREAM! (calmly) But she still pissed me off.
YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME! I... AM... MOK!
- The title character from Darkwing Duck, particularly when he's monologing. Over on the villain side, we have Negaduck (whose hammy nature is befitting, as he's DW's Evil Twin), and Tuskerninni, an ex-actor/director turned criminal:
Darkwing: I caught that hateful, underhanded ham Tuskerninni robbing a bank!
- Speaking of ducks, the orginal Large Ham duck Daffy Duck.
Mine, mine, mine, mine!
Aha! I'm going to be the hero of this picture!
Wait! I haven't tried toadying, kowtowing and butt-kissing yet! I'm still begging here!
Your duck? Bah! I belong to the world.
Hey, come here! Come here! Give me a close-up. A close-up!
All right. Enough is enough. This is the final, the - the very, very last straw! Who's responsible for this? This... I demand that you show yourself! Who are you? Huh?
- And his hammiest line of all.
(Coming out of Porky's refrigerator dressed in winter gear) "What a trip! What a trip! Blizzards all the way! Snow 20 feet deep! But we had to get that serum through! It was mush, mush, mush all night! (Grabbing the dog and pushing him like a sled dog) Come on, mush, mush, mush, mush, mush! Suddenly, the glacier cracks! There's a roar! Tons of ice! No escape! AAAAAAAHHHHHHH! How things been with you?"
- Mrs. Claus introduces Snow Miser in The Year Without a Santa Claus by saying "Here he comes, the big ham."
- His brother, the Heat Miser, might actually be an even bigger ham.
- That's a mystery but they're hammy in their own special as well.
- Both Jabba The Hutt and his evil uncle Ziro in Star Wars The Clone Wars. Ziro in particular seeing as his voice is based on Truman Capote. One day Ah'll rule tha hutts!.
- Most characters on My Gym Partner's A Monkey act like this. Jake Spidermonkey being the most obvious example.
- The Spectacular Spider Man has Mysterrrrrio, who, true-to-form, embodies and revels in this trope. Only when he's "performing", though
- Doc Ock hams it up quite a bit. "TREACHERRRRRYYYYYYY!!!"
- Also Green Goblin, though this is likely deliberately done to avoid people connecting him with the always calm and controlled Norman Osborn.
- Codename: Kids Next Door gives us Moosk, who is both an exceptionally large ham and an affectionate parody of Minsc, also voiced by Jim Cummings. "Spray starch?! SPRAY STARCH!!!"
- Batman The Brave And The Bold gives us Aquaman, King of the Seas!!
- OUTRAGEOUS!
- It also gave us MUSICAL HAM in the form of THE MUSIC MEISTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!!!
- Igor has quite a few including the mad scientists
- Does Brak count as a Large Ham?
- Major Glory from Dexters Laboratory.
- "DEE DEE! GET OUT OF MY LA-BOR-A-TOR-Y!!
- You are styoopid! You are styoopid! And you know what else? YOU ARE STYOOPID!! (and this wasn't even the regular voice act
orress!)
- Dr Weird from Aqua Teen Hunger Force. There's his Catch Phrase "Gentlemen...BEHOLD!" and then there is his tendency to announce even the most mundane of actions in a loud booming voice. "Observe, as I...ADJUST THE HEAT! MWA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAA!!"
- "Gentlemen... BEHOLD! I have made LOVE to this MACHINE! And now, upon retrospect, I ASK WHY!"
- Master Shake as well.
- Mother Brain of Captain N The Game Master, who was voiced by the lead singer of The Four Tops. Always dramatic, always flamboyant, always fantastic.
- The eponymous Big Guy of Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot is prone to making pronouncements like this one: "No not of this Earth surgical probe wielding invaders are going to deprive this planet's children, and their growing bones, of even one glass of wholesome milk!" The contrast between the understated, somewhat cynical Lieutenant Hunter and the overblown, jingoistic personality he takes on while piloting the Big Guy mech goes a long way to explain why almost no one ever catches on that they are one and the same.
- Even a small ham can be a Large Ham, as evidenced by The Dark Lord Chuckles the Silly Piggy.
- Lydia from Barbie And The Diamond Castle definitely comes off as one of these, especially considering her villainous motivation.
"Great singers don't need a chorus!" *jazz hands*
- Technus from Danny Phantom defines this. "I...AM TECHNUS! GHOST MASTER OF SCIENCE AND ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY!"
- Let's not forget Super Danny from Identity Crisis. "I'm not alright, I'm DANNY FENTON!"
- "I am the BOX GHOST! BEWARE!"
- Urban Jungle: "I AM EVERYWHERE!!!"
- The Toad from Flushed Away was written as a ham, and played by Ian McKellen. His hamminess gets on everyone's nerves.
- On a lesser level, his main minion, LeFrog. (who, being played by Jean Reno, at least has an authentic French accent)
- Johnny from Tales Of Worm Paranoia from What A Cartoon Show. "YOU FILTHY CHILDREN!"
- Alvin from Sabrina The Animated Series. "Don't EVER laugh at me!"
- Lampshaded in Shrek the Third. When Arty starts guilt tripping Merlin to help Shrek, Donkey, and Puss back to Far Far Away, little Arty starts hamming it up to a fairly respectable degree. After his little guilt-trip is over, Shrek, obviously impressed, asks "Would you like some eggs with that ham?" Granted, little Arty has nothing on Shatner, but still...
- Brother Blood from Teen Titans has a flair for the dramatic and a tendency to go quite over the top when his plans are working (or when they're not and he's angry at someone because of it, for that matter). Word Of God says this was done deliberately to make a contrast with the previous two seasons' Big Bad, Slade.
- The singer for the Dutch Duck Tales opening hams up the singing to a new cholesterol level. Hear it for yourself.
- Although she usually behaves like the very opposite of a ham, Misery from Ruby Gloom sometimes gets into this role with remarkable ease:
- "I'm also the Queen of disasters, by the way. And the Princess. And the Baroness. And the Countess! And the Viscountess! THE EMPRESS!!"
- "BEWARE!!!...of the cupboard!"
- "As my great-great-great-aunt used to say whenever she got BLASTED out of a volcano...well, she mostly just screamed. But the point is: Try, try and try again!"
- Green Arrow in Justice League. Particularly in the episode where he attacked a submarine while singing his own theme music.
- The Pincushion Man
- Johnny Test is a buffet of ham, especially Johnny, Dukey (when he's not being a Deadpan Snarker) and pretty much all the villains in the show.
Other
Real Life
- Fitness guru Richard Simmons plays this persona to the hilt on numerous talk shows, and gives every appearance of behaving like that all the time.
- Hitler.
- Dude, you got your Godwin in my ham!
- Mmmm, Godwin's Ham.
- Hitler actually had someone teach him how to ham it up for the public.
- General Douglas MacArthur of World War II. "I HAVE RETURNED!"
- Dwight D. Eisenhower served as MacArthur's aide de camp during Mac's term as Army Chief of Staff, and then followed MacArthur to the Philippines in their next assignment. Later in his career, when asked if he knew MacArthur, Eisenhower replied, "I ought to. I studied dramatics under him for six years!"
- Benito Mussolini was also fond of his own bombastic voice and gestures.
- Presidential candidate Howard Dean, whose enthusiastic, red-faced shouting led to public embarrassment.
- Anna Nicole Smith. "DOOO YOUU LIIIIIKE MY BOOODYYYYYYY?!"
- Fidel Castro, notorious for his bombastic, hours-long (!) speeches.
- Seems that old age and bad health has reduced his hamminess in the last years. His brother and succesor of sorta, Raúl Castro, is fairly low-key.
- "Judge me if you will, I don't care. HISTORY WILL ABSOLVE ME! "
- Hugo Chavez, who absolutely must be the centre of attention at all times. At least until he got shut down by the King of Spain in a manner most awesome.
- Don King. Even his hair overacts.
- Janice Dickinson, the self-proclaimed "worlds first supermodel".
- Chilean ex-President Ricardo Lagos. Specially if he whips out his index finger.
- Another REALLY Large Ham coming from Chile: sport reporter and narrator Fernando Solabarrieta, who is known to cry and scream when he's hyperventilated. You want to see it? Check this.
- Pedro Carcuro is another Chilean ham; he may be a bit low-key when compared to Solabarrieta, but still hammy for at least 30 years. Hilariously spoofed in an old TV ad that features his screams as background noise for several planes and car crashes.
- Since soccer in Latin-America is very Serious Business, every single soccer commentator (whether on the TV or on radio) is required to be VERY hammy. Otherwise they'd never be able to reach the levels of flailing and screaming they get when a specially important and/or well-done goal is scored.
- GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO[snip]OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!
- The press boxes of the stadiums in the 2006 World Cup were open onto the field, which occasionally meant that the sound from one set of broadcasters was audible in the next box over. The ESPN box was right next to that of a Spanish network during one of Spain's matches. When Spain scored a goal, veiwers in the US watching ESPN could hear the Spanish announcers in the next box going absolutely bananas...for the next five minutes!
- Not that American sports commentators are any more subdued. John Madden, anyone?
- Especially if Madden is talking about 'his Favrerite' player, Bret Favre. You know Madden has one of those creepy shines in his basement. Probably does the Silence Of The Lambs dance in front of it.
- While I can't argue with the sentiment...that image... DO! NOT! WANT!!
- For baseball, you have Hawk Harrelson of the White Sox, Mike Shannon of the Cardinals, and Harey Carey of the Cubs.
- Youtube Partner Hellsing920 is like this on occasions. THIS IS CALLED A LONGBOX!
- Youtuber No More Marbles, who is borderline infamous amongst Twilight fans (and a few anti-fans) for having developed a bizarrely, gleefully goofy, over-the-top (and admittedly borderline creepy) on-camera persona. Samples: A parody in response to fans' badmouthing the casting of Robert Pattinson in the movie version of ''Twilight'', Getting threated by Eminem, "NO! Anything but the Volvo!!!".
- Hell, you know what? Try it some time. It's great fun. Even if assorted friends/relatives/passersby/madmen aren't that appreciative. I like to do a hammy little pose to go along with.
- Waaaaaaay ahead of ya, baby!!
- The late Boris Yeltsin.
- While we're on that track, Nikita "WE WILL BURY YOU!" Khrushchev. Extra points for walloping the table with his shoe.
- Lenin was like this in most of his speeches: "COMRADES! The REVOLUTION, the importance of which was spoken about for such a long time by BOLSHEVIKS... HAS HAPPENED"
- Trotsky was somewhat of a ham too.
- Meat Loaf. Look at any of his music videos, or anything of him on Youtube... he really should be named for THIS meat.
- Tony Robbins.
- Don Cherry, of Coach's Corner infamy in Canada. Also, his suits. And intro music.
- Michael Buffer was famous for this. But his ham is nothing compared to Lenne Hardt.
- Boris "Bojo" Johnson
- HI, BILLY MAYS HERE!!
OXYCLEAN! WITH THE POWER OF OXYGEN!
- Many real-life pirates were known for this, in particular Blackbeard (who was genuinely attempting to scare people so he could rule by fear) and Bartholomew Roberts, who wore a giant diamond-encrusted cross on a necklace. Yes, Black Bart Roberts had bling.
- HI, I'M BARRY SCOTT! AND THIS IS CILLIT BANG!
- AND I'M BEING PAID BY THE DECIBEL!
- There are a couple of professional poker players who deserve mention here, including but not limited to...
- For better or for worse, President Barack Obama. YES WE CAN!
- His Hamming Skills fall well short of Senator Huey Long, the Hammiest guy I can think of in real life.
- WHO WILL PROTECT THIS HOOW-UUUUSE!?
- John Barrowman. Just... John Barrowman.
- When taken to dysfunctional extremes, this is usually known as a histrionic personality disorder.
- Cleveland sports tv and radio personality Bruce Drennan, with his trademark "IIIIIIII lovvvve ya Cleveland!"
- From the world of bodybuilding, may I present Ronnie Coleman, the most pumped-up ham since Ahnuld, as well as the closest thing to a Real Life Smug Super. Watching him lift insane amounts of weight on youtube straddles the line between HSQ and Narm, but it is always undeniably ham.
YEAH BUDDDAAYYY! LIGHT WEIGHT!!!
- Sportscaster Galvão Bueno is the unquestioned Ham Emperor of Brazilian TV. The Ham is cranked up to eleven when a Brazilian wins a Formula One Race.
- Some Brazilian preachers are prone to this (borderline/hilarious example). Once, this troper and his sister's then-boyfriend caught one on TV, and were laughing so hard at his hamminess that the sister (in the bathroom) thought we were watching a cartoon.
- How about Nikia Khrushchev and his shoe?
- Latin American tropers! How could we forget Judge Ana María Polo from "Caso Cerrado"?!
CASO CERRAAAAADOOOO! [whack!]
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