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"POWERRRRRRRR! UNLIMITED POWERRRRRRRR!"
"Stand aside everyone! I take LARGE STEPS!"
—Miles Gloriosus, A Funny Thing Happened on The Way to the Forum.
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 line readings that can shake a scene to pieces.
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! Often a character trait of The Toblerone, and often cast as a Cardinal Wolsey.
Anime characters frequently order hotblood 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.
One of the United Kingdom's most active export industries.
Other examples:
Live Action TV
- The Fonz, after the second season of Happy Days.
- Draal (#2, played by John Schuck) in Babylon 5.
- Don't forget Jason Ironheart from the 1st season episode "Mind War." Worst. Acting. Ever.
- Someone seems to have forgotten Lyta Alexander in the pilot, specifically after she looked into Kosh's mind.
- And Peter Jurasik as Londo. Come to think of it Large Ham may be the Centauri's hat.
- Pretty much every cast-member in the Star Trek Universe eats a ham sandwich before coming on set, 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.
- 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!"
- 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 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!"
- Jimmy James from News Radio, who was actually part of the regular cast.
- Dom DeLuise had a guest spot in the Stargate SG-1 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 episode.
- The Goa'uld also act like this quite a bit, as they're trying to pass for gods. O'Neill will often point this out in order to annoy them.
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
- Derek Jacobi during the last ten minutes of his performance in the recent Doctor Who New Series episode "Utopia". Having given a subtle, moving performance as the kindly Professor Yana for most of the episode, he then is transformed into the Doctor's über-evil arch-foe the Master... and at the same moment, into a really Large Ham. Consequently, John Simm is a very very Large Ham, albeit an evil one.
- Anthony Ainley on playing the Master: "I'm not a ham, you can cure a ham!"
- "FOOL! YOU CANNOT KILL ME! I! AM! DAVROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOS!"
- Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor: "Me? Me?! ME!?!" Come to think of it, most Doctors have their moments of ham.
- Especially Tom Baker, who hammed it up to almost BRIAN BLESSED levels both in the show and off it. Sometimes this editor wonders what would happen if the two shook hands and whether reality itself would survive?
- Two words: David Tennant. This troper wonders if his blood is made of espresso.
- The Big Finish audio play Omega has an in-universe Large Ham in the form of Daland. A Classically Trained Extra on a Show Within A Show, upon hearing that he might be replaced by a robot he exclaims, "no mere machine could do my job!!" Deadpan Snarker Sentia replies, "I dunno, a fridge could do your job. You can fit a lot of ham in a fridge."
- The Empress of Racnoss, villain of the 2006 Christmas special The Runaway Bride, was an enormous piece of Spider-Ham.
- To go a little more old school, Professor Zaroff in the Second Doctor story "The Underwater Menace" is a GLORIOUS bit of ham all the way through, his most magnificent bit of ham being the cliffhanger of part three: "NOSSING IN ZE VORLD CAN SHTOP ME NOW!"
- Not to mention the really quite wonderful antics of Graham Crowden as Soldeed in The Horns of Nimon, particularly his death scene, complete with manic cackling, staring eyes, "Lord Nimon? Lord Nimon? It is I, Soldeed!" and "You Fools! Fools!! You will die for your interference!!!"
- Richard Hatch as Tom Zarek on Battlestar Galactica, especially on his first appearance.
- Malcolm McDowell as Mr. Linderman on Heroes.
- Over time, Malcolm McDowell's metabolism has changed to the point where he can now only subsist on a diet of chewed scenery.
- "Shawn Spencer" from Psych - who is without a doubt the biggest pseudo psychic ham in all of network television.
- 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 Spanish Inquisition from Monty Python's Flying Circus, but only when they can get their lines straight.
- BRIANBLESSED 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.
- Mr. Belding on Saved By The Bell.
- Three words: 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 announcer for Ninja Warrior enthusiastically improvises Purple Prose for every contestant possible.
- 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.
- Nation, I am furious that it took this long to mention Stephen Colbert.
- Robin William's guest appearance on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. PUSH! THE! BUTTONNNNNNNN!!!!!
Film
- Jim Carrey's 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.
- Robert DeNiro as Max Cady in Cape Fear.
- Kenneth Branagh's Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, another character actually required by the story to be a Large 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.
- This troper would award the laurel to Jason "You cost me my SERVANT!" Isaacs.
- As crazy as it sounds, Voldemort. At least in Goblet of Fire, where it's easy to see the fun Ralph Fiennes is having.
- Come to think of it, Kenneth Branagh in pretty much anything, but especially any of his own adaptations of Shakespeare. Much Ado About Nothing being a prime example.
- Michael Keaton does an admirable job in the same movie as Dogberry....in fact, he's also a ham of great distinction in much of his work.
- 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.
- And speaking of Alan Rickman, this page can't be complete without mentioning Hans Gruber and the Sheriff of Nottingham.
- John Rhys-Davies in his guest-starring role as Alexandre Dumas in The Secret Adventures Of Jules Verne.
- 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.
- 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.)
- Kevin Spacey's Lex Luthor in Superman Returns.
- WRONG!
- Gene Hackman's Luthor in Superman II also serves, even if he isn't the biggest ham in the movie (keep on reading...).
- 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.
- Some of this stems from Lugosi learning many of his lines phonetically, but he's still a fantastic ham.
- And taken to near-parody 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.
- 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 indellible 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.
- 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!).
- It's practically compulsory for a James Bond villain to be wildly over-the-top. A few examples:
- 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.
- Exception: Sean Bean played a low-key villain in Goldeneye.
- 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.
- Like James Bond, Batman is riddled with hams - even in the Darker And Edgier Nolan reboot.
- 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 yet he never raises his voice.
- Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr Freeze in Batman and Robin. "Ice to see you".
- Christian Bale as the caped crusader himself in the new Dark Knight Trilogy. That voice must require some serious throat pastilles afterwards...
- 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.
- Heath Ledger's Joker is also sadistically wonderful, funny and terrifying at the same time. And hammy.
- Not to mention Danny DeVito's Penguin. "I AM NOT A HUMAN BEING! I AM AN ANIMAL! COOOOOLD BLOODED!"
- 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
- Charlton Heston in every movie he was in, especially as Moses.
- Cate Blanchett in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, complete with fake Russian accent.
- Actually, I happen to work with a real-life Ukrainian and I can attest to the fact that, as she played a character born in the Ukraine, Cate Blanchett's accent was exactly accurate. Yes, real-life Ukrainians really do sound like that.
- 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.
- He was also pretty hammy in Eregon, probably for the same reason. It's this troper's opinion that he enjoys doing crappy fantasy movies every once in a while. Gives him a chance to be out-acted by his eyebrows.
- Al Pacino, as the Devil in The Devil's Advocate, would only take the part if he got to do a ten minute rant in the film's climax.
- 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!")
- Marlon Brando in some of his films.
- F. Murray AbraHAM as the face-stretching, scenery-chewing, Smug Snake Ru'afo in Star Trek: Insurrection.
- 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!!"
- And how can we forget Ricardo Montalban as KHAAAAAN!!!
-
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.
- "WE'LL MEET AGAIN, SPIDAH-MAAAAAAAAAAN!" And don't forget Doc Ock in the second film. "You have a train to catch."
- And while we're into it, You Tube filmmaker ItsJustSomeRandomGuy does a Goblin not only as hammy as Dafoe, but that also praises him greatly (starts at 1:44)...
- Don't forget J. Jonah Jameson, played with gusto by J.K. Simmons.
- Virtually anybody in Speed Racer, but in particular Pops, Royalton, and impressively, eight-year-old Spritle.
- KING LEONIDAS from 300...who alternates between speaking softly...AND! VERY! LOUDLY!
- This seems to be a habit with Gerard Butler. An acquaintance of this troper described his Phantom of the Opera performance as "having two levels: one and eleven."
- Ephialtes and Xerxes were pretty hammy, too. (a particular scene of the latter 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?!
- 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 Psycho Lesbian angle for everything it's worth. As Rifftrax so memorably put it: "This is community college draaaaaaaaama class!".
- Tim Curry. For a perfect example, watch him having far too much fun playing evil wizard Trymon in The Colour of Magic.
- No mention of Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood? He is pretty much the epitome of this trope.
- 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."
- In an age when being a Large Ham was practically a requirement to appear in movies, John Barrymore still managed to stand out.
- 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.
- 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.
- Rowan Atkinson in Scooby Doo.
- 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.
- "HOW'DITGETBURNED?HOW'DITGETBURNEDHOW'DITGETBUUUUUUUUURNED?!?"
- Cary Elwes in Ella Enchanted. "I order you to keel Char!" He was the only entertaining thing about an otherwise painfully bad movie.
- "Inconcieveable!"
- To Wong Fu, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar was the proverbial feast of a thousand hams. Every lead actor was salted, cured, and hickory-smoked.
- Jack Palance could go from quiet, breathy ham to loud, bombastic ham in the blink of an eye.
- Half the cast of Ocean's 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 kosher Large 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". 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.
Theatre
Western Animation
- Megatron from Transformers: Beast Wars, also a large ham within the context of the series, but often played seriously... 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 actually, I kid you not, mugs for the camera ... while stepping on someone he'd just shot to prevent them from getting up. Yes, he's part of the main cast... The Big Bad, as a matter of fact. His megalomania is rather charming in its way, yeeeessss....
- 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, this is his reply:
- The Original Series Starscream was hamtastic at times too. And speaking of...
- Cobra Commander. But he was out-hammed by Serpentor. "THIS, I COMMAND!"
- 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!!"
- 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!!
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 evil! 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!!!"
- Limburger from the original Biker Mice From Mars series.
- 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.
- 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!")
-
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.
- 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 Queen-Hag 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 La Verne, a stage and silent film actress.)
- 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, this troper firmly believes that nothing in that episode tops "HONOOOOOOOOOOR!"
- Duffman! Oooooh Yeah!
- 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.
- 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— [Mr. Incredible goes flying.] Oh, great.
- 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.
Professional Wrestling
- 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.
- Let's try that again: "YOUUUUU'RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRE FIIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRED!"
- 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.
- In fact, pro wrestlers in general have become larger and larger servings of ham as spectacle has come to dominate over athletics. By now, there's hardly a wrestler alive who can't fill a banquet table all by their lonesome.
- The Ultimate Warrior. 'Nuff said.
Radio
Anime
- Aion in Chrono Crusade very, very much applies. In his first appearance, he is introduced by Biblical Plagues out of nowhere, including a black sun and a red moon. When he first appears on stage, he is introduced by an earth-quake, and immediately proclaims that he will fight against God, and Hannibal Lectures everyone, pointing out how he 'saved' them from God.
- Dan Green, one of several stock actors for 4Kids dubs (or, depending on your point of view, Macekres). At one point, he even lampshades this in a certain quote of his:
Dan Green: Do people actually think that I walk around in life like that all time? I'M GOING TO DO MY LAUNDRY, YES! PASS ME THE MILK! THANK YOU. CAN I HAVE SOME CHANGE?
- Kamina from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is a ham of epic proportions. Most of the main characters get a moment of Hot Blooded or five, but Kamina's tendency to be this way constantly makes him stand out as the epitome of the Anime Ham.
Kamina: Oi oi oi! WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM?
- Major Alex Louis Armstrong from Fullmetal Alchemist, whose overacting techniques have been passed down in the Armstrong family for generations.
- And that's not just for a Running Gag - they really are. His elder sister Olivia Armstrong (who only appears in the Manga) is another good example. Don't put the two of them together or you'll have an Escalating War of Feed Me lines, as they really don't get along.
- Sometimes happens to Lelouch Lamperouge from Code Geass, especially once he gets his costume. Lampshaded almost immediately when another character comments that they didn't expect the genius strategist to be such a ham. Only really applies when he's in his Zero guise.
- There's a reason he is only such a ham with the mask on; if anything, he's more of a ham without it, and seeing the relatively low-key Lelouch act like Zero in R2 episode 20 is actually rather terrifying.
- What about the Emperor? Even when the man whispers, his voice booms (Thank you Wakamoto Norio). Of course, the man is literally larger than life, so it's to be expected.
- Well, still beaten by Lelouch, since not only did Lelouch geassed the God to erase Charles, one month later internationally he calmly walk into the throne room and an international audience, sit down, cross his legs, and say he is the emperor, and just sat there as four spears speeding toward him, knowing that his Dragon will spinkick them away, before reaffirming his authority by geassing everyone (while shouting loudly), making eveyrone shout ALL HAIL LELOUCH!... and he just smirk.
- What, you guys forgot about Jeremiah "Orange-kun" Gottwald after episode 4? ALL HAIL BRITTANNIAAAAAAAAA!!!, indeed.
- For someone who holds a respectable position in a prosecutor's office and leads a life of such extreme regularity that Immanuel Kant himself would envy it, Mikami Teru of Death Note is an extra-juicy ham. His ham moments (which contain a healthy, or perhaps unhealthy, dose of What Do You Mean Its Not Awesome) are the more startling because they appear in a series that is relatively realistic, notwithstanding L's and Near's deductions ex machina.
- ''SAKUJO, SAKUJO, SAKUJO!''
- And then there's Ryuk the shinigami, a gothic crow-winged psychopomp with a giant mouth, but even so he manages to be hammier, particularly in the English dub ("THE SYMPTOMS ARE STARTIIIING!")
- That's probably because he's voiced by the guy who voiced Vegeta...
- But no one can forget the truly blood-curdling Potato Chip Eating Scene.
- Dantalion, Bal Masque's Mad Scientist in Shakugan No Shana.
- For an anime full of over the toharacters, Master Asia from G Gundam takes over the top and corny to new levels.
-
Mighty Gai Might Guy from Naruto, as he's a parody of an over-excited coach from a Sports Anime. Constantly makes declarations about "The Fire of Youth" and Dynamic Entries.
- The Trigun Maximum manga has Lazlo, who's practically a schoolcase.
Lazlo: LET'S GO. NOW!
Livio: Where?
Lazlo: WHERE WE CAN FIGHT!!
- The Count in Gankutsuou qualifies to some extent, especially with his melodramatic poses and obvious histrionic enjoyment.
The Count: BERTUCCIO! LET'S GO TO PARIS! WHERE EVIL CRAWLS! HAHAHAHAHAAA!
- The fact that he yells this with a dandy pose and with an expression of absolute insanity just after he sobbed desperately like a wounded kid emphasizes the spectacular aspect of the scene.
- Haruka Suzushiro from Mai-HiME (and Haruka Armitage from Mai-Otome) may very well be the queen of anime and manga Large Hams, with a flair for shouting and dramatic gestures (especially finger-pointing) that is too great to be ignored.
- On the villainous side, Tomoe (post-Yandere snap) tries to out-ham Haruka in Zwei.
- Ergo Proxy has a few of these. The creators of the show seem to know exactly how pretentious they were being and revelled in being subtly ironic over it. To say nothing of the main characters, many of the Proxies have a tendency toward the overly dramatic, but none more so than MCQ, who out of boredom created his battle arena to be an elaborate gameshow to which he hosts with great enthusiasm. The Magnificent Bastard Proxy One is also worth mentioning, as he goes out of his way to act and look as melodramatic as possible.
- Perhaps to make up for the (in comparison) low-key main cast, a lot of side characters behave this way in Princess Tutu. Particularly in the ADV Films dub, where the actors were obviously enjoying themselves a ton. (Of course, the animation for the characters only supports them in how it should sound...) Some of the more notable examples:
Professor Cat: "If you don't do well in your studies...I WILL HAVE YOU MAAAAAAARY ME!!!"
Femio:" [cymbal crash] OH, HEAVEN! [cymbal crash] POUR JUDGMENT UPON...THIS SINNAAAAAAAH!"
- (In the Japanese version, his hammiest moments literally sounds like they're being spoken over a loud-speaker!)
Autor: "And to think that the stories are so powerful that the endings even had to be torn out! ISN'T IT THRILLING?!"
- Mahou Sensei Negima gives us Rakan, who makes the likes of Might Guy and Armstrong look normal. At least he does know that a move can't have too long a name.
- And how could we forget Dragonball Z's own group of hams, the Ginyu Force?
- Or, for that matter, teen!Gohan's attempts to become a Large Ham through his "Great Saiyaman" identity in the Buu saga?
- ORE-SAMA NO BIGI NO YOI NA!
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. Disgaea 3 gives us Lord Big Star, who's as hammy as anyone with that name can
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