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alt title(s): Big Ham 
Only one of these hams is kosher. "POWERRRRRRRR! UNLIMITED POWERRRRRRRR!"
"You still refuse to ACCEPT...my godhood? KEEP your own God! In fact, this might be a good time to PRAY to Him! For I beheld Satan as he FELL FROM HEAVEN!... LIKE LIGHTNING!!!"
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.
When this is Narm, the large hams are likely to have come from Hillshire Narm (Go Keet!)
Compare Melodrama. See also Ham And Cheese. Large Hams enjoy Milking The Giant Cow. And Feed Me more Ham!
Examples:
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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.
- Schwartzwald from The Big O. In contrast to the largely taciturn cast, Schwartzwald deliver long, rambling monologues VERY LOUDLY, often while setting things on fire. Also applies to Beck.
- Yu Yu Hakusho has quite a few of these. Hiei, during his time as the first Big Bad, arrogantly gloats nonstop from the moment he shows up to the moment he's defeated. After his defeat, however, he turns to the good side and becomes The Stoic instead. The much later villain Seaman is another character who has incredibly hammy while a villain but pretty normal afterwards. Of course, the biggest ham in the series is
Suzuka The Beautiful Suzuka, who, despite having a fair bit of villainous lead-in time, and having a hell of a lot of flash (in more ways than one), receives a beating of a lifetime for his trouble.
- Yugi from Yu-Gi-Oh!, voiced in English by DAN GREEN, one of several stock actors for 4Kids dubs (watch his hamminess here
 *Sonic 2006 Spoilers!*). Of course, this is Flanderized to absurdity in Yu Gi Oh The Abridged Series, where "he" gives the Spiderwick Chronicles movie a bad rating not just because of the confusing ending or that Freddie Highmore plays everybody, but also because of the complete lack of children's card games. 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?
- And let's not get into Chris Sabat (Vegeta and Armstrong) and Kyle Hebert (teenage Gohan and the narrator for Kamina). Another 4Kids offender is the voice of Dan Green's Yu-Gi-Oh rival Kaiba, Eric Stuart...though that isn't the only anime he's done this in. I AM A FLAMING MOLTRES!
- To be fair, Kaiba/Stuart did deliver some
good downright bitchy lines in the Duelist Kingdom arc.
- Crispin Freeman has been known to do some stuff like this, such as Alucard (mentioned below) and Heughes from Baten Kaitos Origins.
-
KamHAMina from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Most of the main characters get a moment of Hot Blooded or five, but Kamina's tendency to be this way constantly makes him ask "WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I HAM?!"
- The Anti Spiral brings epic levels of ham in the final confrontation, at least in the English dub. "BURRRN IN THE FIRES OF CREATION! DOWN TO THE LAST! SCRAP! OF DDDDDDDDDDD-NNNNNNNNNNN-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
- Then again, he was effectively throwing the Big Bang at the heroes. With great power comes great hamminess or something.
- Major Alex Louis Armstrong from Fullmetal Alchemist, whose overacting techniques have been passed down the Armstrong line 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.
- Lelouch Lamperouge from Code Geass, especially once he gets his Zero 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 Norio Wakamoto). Of course, the man is literally larger than life, so it's to be expected. And, while he'll probably never achieve quite the same level of renown among fans, his English VA Michael Mc Connohie is most definitely trying his best at the role: we got a rather nice taste during Clovis' eulogy, but in Stage 22, he goes all-out, delivering an evil laugh and subsequent monologue that would give Emperor Palpatine a run for his money.
- Even with Norio Wakamoto as a father, Lelouch manages to out-ham him in Episode 21 of R2: One month after mind-controlling God into getting rid of the Emperor, he calmly strides into the imperial throne room wearing his school uniform, calmly sits down on the throne, and declares himself Emperor. After The Dragon spinkicks the guards away, Lelouch uses his Geass to force all present to acknowledge him as Emperor, sitting back with a smirk on his face as they chant "ALL HAIL LELOUCH!".
- Jeremiah "Orange" Gottwald starts off the series looking pretty slick and arrogant, but after nearly getting killed, and being turned into a cyborg, he seems to suffer from brain damage after this he starts turning into a Large Ham, getting hammier with each passing appearance, up until the very end of the series. ALL HAIL BRITTANNIAAAAAAAAA!!!, indeed. And "Taste my storm of loyalty!"
- This Troper nominates the show itself as a Large Ham. The utter over-the-top-ness of everything that happens, wrung for as much drama and angst as possible, makes it hard to view the show in any other fashion.
- 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 Brian Drummond, the original dub voice actor for 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 top characters, Master Asia from G Gundam takes OTT and corny to new levels.
- "This hand of mine is burning red. Its loud roar tells me to grasp victory and to defeat you!
Erupting Burning Burning God Finger!!"
- Prince Ali, HAMMY IS HE, Ali Al-Saachez!
-
Mighty Gai Mito 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.
- And let us not forget Jiraiya. "When you've reached the stature I have... THE LADIES KNEEL AND WORSHIP... AT YOUR AWESOMENESS!!"
- 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.
- Evangeline also does this on occasion, such as when she destroyed a massive demon, giving her big Evil Gloating speech about how powerful she was. Another character points this out: "Eva-chan is really enjoying herself, isn't she?"
- Dragonball Z's own group of hams, the Ginyu Force.
- Or, for that matter, teenage Gohan's attempts to become a Large Ham through his "Great Saiyaman" identity in the Buu saga? (Which is funny, because his English voice actor would later use a similar voice for Kamina.)
- Or, you know, Vegeta? Goku's power level is not a meme for nothing.
- Vegeta was certainly the king of this, although most of the villains and a good chunk of the heroes had their moments of this trope. Cell comes to mind - although it just added to his sheer Squick.
- Pretty much everyone in Sailor Moon with the absolute king of it being Professor Tomoe of the Death Busters.
- Lampshaded in one episode that focused on a production of Snow White, with Usagi playing the Wicked Witch. When she was at home practicing, Shingo shouted something that was translated as "Ham actress!" to antagonize her.
- How about an anime example? Calling the second voice actor for Serena in the English dub of Sailor Moon a Large Ham would probably be the nicest thing to do.
- Soul Eater features a rather hammy main character, Black Star, who has a tendency to grossly overact, but runs a gamut of less hammy moments as well. Excalibur, meanwhile, is very much a Large Ham; not only is it very obvious that his seiyuu intentionally overdid every one of his lines, said voice actor has also voiced more animes than all the main characters' voice actors combined.
- Sasagawa Ryouhei of Katekyo Hitman Reborn does it TO THE EXTREME.
- Commander Taiga from Gao Gai Gar couldn't be more hammy if he sat in the deli case at your local grocery store. Of course, in the (unfortunately cancelled) dub, he's played by DAN GREEN!
- America from Axis Powers Hetalia.
- Don't forget Prussia! Prone to maniacal laughter and crazy antics, all while technically not existing anymore..
- Hellsing's Alucard dominates any scene he's in, and is even more hammy when voiced by Crispin Freeman in the English dubs for both the original series and the OVA.
- And lest we forget, The Major himself probably acheived his position by clubbing all other competitors to death with the sheer size of his ham. When he can launch into a ten-minute speech about how much he loves war and make it awesome, you've got a true ham on hand.
- What about Anderson? Norio Wakamoto - who keeps getting mentioned on this page - gets in quite a few Feed Me scenes.
- "AAAAAAAAMMMMEEEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNN!"
- Let's not forget Integra Hellsing's "Kill 'em All" speech in volume 3, or the Valantine Bros in 2. I'd say there's more ham to be found in Hellsing Ultimate than Shatner's entire film career. The fact the english V As manage to keep up so well just gives you an excuse to enjoy TWICE the ham for your dollar!
- Everything about Atobe Keigo just screams Large Ham, and is a large part of why the character is ridiculously popular with the fans.
- Example: his most well-known line, "Ore-sama no bigi ni yoi na!", roughly means "Be awed by my prowess".
- And the musical version takes it up a notch by turning the line into a song and dance number titled Ore-sama no bigi ni boogie woogie, which includes other characters passing out when he blows kisses, and him taking the time out to be served bottled water in a wineglass and then taste as if it were wine, all in the middle of a tennis match.
- Mark Oliver, the voice actor for Rau Le Creuset in the dub Gundam SEED. The scene where he reveals Kira's history as the Ultimate Coordinator is incredibly dramatic, but while Toshihiko Seki simply has Rau raise his voice, Oliver chews the scenery with relish, to the point that this troper can't hear the music from that scene's soundtrack without hearing Rau's over the top near-manic ranting in the back of his head.
- Creed from Black Cat. His super evil over-the-top laugh, paired with him constantly screaming praises of Train make him a rather Large Ham indeed.
- Uryuu Ishida from Bleach has some pretty hammy moments. He's very proud of them, even if his fellow cast members think they're, well, hammy.
Ishida: "Tell Aizen that a Quincy has come! For the one you truly have to fear is not a shinigami but a Quincy!"
- Suou Tamaki of Ouran High School Host Club is very interested in educating himself in the ways of the common people's ham.
- Not to mention Houshakuji Renge, complete with Noblewomans Laugh.
- It's hard to tell whether the seiyuu or the voice actors were having more fun, but let's face it — even if he wasn't into Ouran by the time it was licensed, Tamaki's Berserk Button animation and personality kinda pinpointed to who would eventually play him.
- Sohma Ayame of Fruits Basket would love nothing more than to embrace his little brother and clutch him to his hamly bosom.
- Mad Scientist Komui Lee of D.Gray-Man transforms into ham around his sister, Action Girl Lenalee. Yet another one voiced by Katsuyuki "Kamina" Konishi, you see.
- A few characters in Baccano. For Isaac and Miria, it comes with the ditzy Refuge In Audacity territory. And then there's Ladd...
- Graham Spector?
- Naturally, Ladd and
GraHam Spector meet up and get into a Feed Me battle of epic proportions. There are no survivors.
- Some of the Devil Bats of Eyeshield 21 can be pretty hammy, Monta and Taki come to mind, but some of the guys on the other teams are really hammy, as well as the announcers (although, they are sports announcers so...).
- Nozomu Itoshiki from Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei.
"I AM IN DESPAIR! OVERLY MELODRAMATIC ACTING HAS LEFT ME IN DESPAIR! "
- While generally very understated, Robin from One Piece turns into a faux-Shakespearian actor after being recruited into a play, turning mundane dialog into melodramatic tragedy. It's implied that this is due to her not knowing any other style of theatre.
- Dr. Jail Scaglietti of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. He speaks dramatically when he gives instruction. He speaks dramatically when he makes an observation. He speaks dramatically when he's facing defeat. Even when he's been incarcerated for three years, he still speaks dramatically when being interrogated in StrikerS Sound Stage X. And when he's actually broadcasting in front of a camera, hoo-boy... It probably helps that he's voiced by Ken "Orange-kun" Narita.
- Tsukiyo from Sketchbook ~full color'S~ tends to respond overly dramatic when she doesn't get recognized by the other students—which happens quite often.
- The Furukawas of CLANNAD are made of this trope. Quite appropriate, given the fact that they were formerly actors.
- The Narrator of Shin Mazinger is one of the largest hams ever. Below is him talking about the metal that the Mazinger Z is made from. Personally the troper fears for his ear drums when Kouji gets the God Scrander from episode 1.
Yes! It, the world's strongest alloy, is what makes the Mazinger Z an unsinkable castle of steel! Fearing none, thwarted by none; even if it is encircled by a thousand foes, its invincible castle of a body protects him from any number of attacks! Once more, let's call it out! That alloy's name is Super Alloy ZEEEEEEEEEEEEEETTOOOOOOOOOOOO!
- Captain Bravo of Busou Renkin. One example of his ham credentials is where he is overly dramatic even while ordering a burger.
Comic Books
- Doom is displeased that people think he overacts. Doom NEVER underacts.
- Doctor 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!
- This is clearly a plot by that perfidious dolt REED RICHARDS!!
- Norman Osborn has shown surprising abilities for this trope when he recently staged an attack by the Green Goblin on Air Force One for him to foil. 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.
- In the 1994 Fantastic Four cartoon, Thor was played by John Rhys-Davies, mentioned below. It was awesome.
- And he's played by Cam Friggin' Clarke in Marvel Ultimate Alliance. "SOULLESS MACHINE!!! How DARE you strike the SON OF ODIN!!!" *bang, boom, kapow!*
- And the upcoming Kenneth Branagh-directed Thor film features Odin, as played by.... wait for it.....BRIANBLESSED!! Truly a Cue Cullen of deafening proportions.
- 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!"
- 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 a notch even when he's losing. His last appearance had him, as a ghost, 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. He would leave the scenery half-eaten, if he still had teeth with which to chew. The sinister, sealed sovereign's hammery rivals that of blessed Brian himself!
- Spidey gets to intentionally ham it up and have fun doing so in his Marvel Adventures team up with Doctor Strange. In fact, his sheer level of ham becomes essential in bluffing a Cosmic Horror, who happens to be blind and can't see how small the "Great Hidden One Known As The Spider Man" actually is.
Spidey: "A merest SHRUG from I, the one for whom a THOUSAND GALAXIES have- huh? They all disappeared? What happened?"
Strange: "Thanks to your acting, we just won on a complete bluff. You'd make a good magician, you know. Sorcery's all in the confidence."
- For that matter, Strange himself, on many occasions.
Film
- Jim Carrey
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
- This troper would award the laurel to Jason "You cost me my SERVANT!" Isaacs.
- Strangely, Voldemort, particularly in Goblet of Fire. It's easy to see the fun Ralph Fiennes is having.
- Other Kenneth Branagh roles
- 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!"
- Having just seen The Boat That Rocked, this troper has to add this to the list. "ARSE! ARSE! ARSE!"
- Michael Keaton
- John Rhys-Davies
- His guest-starring role as Alexandre Dumas in The Secret Adventures Of Jules Verne.
- Hell. John Rhys-Davies in almost anything:
- "...they're diggin in the wrong place!"
- "Nobody tosses a dwarf!"
- Did you forget "TROPHIES! HA HA!"? Granted, that Macbeth was a robot, but it was still Rhys-Davies.
- Exception: While he did give the role its fair share of ham, his portrayal of Mac Beth in Gargoyles was uncharacteristically understated.
- They must have filled the recording studio with opium to get that effect. Or maybe pot smoke.
- One more exception for Mr. Davies: his performance as Macro in I Claudius. Low-key, no-nonsense, and absolutely frightening.
- Yet another exception: his performance as General Leonid Pushkin in The Living Daylights, while good, isn't particularly hammy. To be fair, the film revolved around several billion dollars worth of opium.
- That, and Jeroen Krabbe as Koskov was hammy for two.
- His line about the diplomatic bag is a nice piece of ham, however.
- "I am not Mr. Pavarotti. Mr. Pavarotti is an Italian. He speak-a like-a this. Do I speak-a like this? No. WHY? Because I'm an ENGLISHMAN, you blistering idiot!!!!"
- Superman
- Kevin Spacey's Lex Luthor in Superman Returns.
- Gene Hackman's Luthor in Superman II also serves, even if the next exemple 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 Dark Knight Trilogy
- 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!
- 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.
- 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.
- Basically, if you're playing a Bond villain and you don't exude large amounts of ham, ur doin it rong. That was actually one of the reasons Quantum Of Solace didn't work for This Troper.
- 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!".
- Darth Malak definitely has his moments as the Dark Lord of the Ham
- Daniel Day-Lewis
- Tim Cur
ied ham ry
- 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!!
- 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.
- This troper was praying that he would grow a walrus mustache and play Professor Slughorn in the next Harry Potter film.
- "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.
- Accourding 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.
- George C. Scott
- He was a master at saving the ham for just the right moment, for maximum effect.
- In the desert battle in Patton, he spends most of it just watching, calmly observing the whole thing. Then when it's clear his troops are winning, comes the immortal, "Rommel, you Magnificent Bastard, I read your BOOOK!"
- interestingly enough, George Patton's daughters said that Scott nailed Patton's personality so perfectly, they felt like they were actually watching their father on the movie screen. Does that make George Patton a ham? (especially in light of the fact that the movie actually DOWNPLAYS some of the more crude and vulgar catchphrases that he was famous for)
- Also in The Hustler, "You owe me MONEY!"
- Similarly, TheRescuersDownUnder. "I didn't make it all the way through third grade for NOTHING!"
- He also, at Kubrick's urging, made quite the snack of Dr Strangelove.
- Hardcore. TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OFF!
- The Exorcist III. I BELIEVE speech was off the charts, even for Scott.
- Richard O'Brien
- 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!
- 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.
- This troper's favorite bit is the pirate grammar contest between those two in the third movie. "What are you doing?" "No - what ARRRRRRRRRRE ye doin'!?" "What are YOU doing?" "No - what ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRE ye doin'!?"
- "Dearrly beloved, we be gathered here today, to nail your gizzards to the mast, you poxy cur!"
- 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 the 2007 ''Transformers'' live action movie. 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.
- If anything, Megatron is the ham here:
- James Rethrick in Paycheck exclaims "Still think you can change your fate, Mike!? I AM A FUTURE MIKE!!".
- 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 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. This hetero male troper felt his performance was far better Parental Bonus than Vanessa Williams as the Queen of Trash.
Who said that? Who dares challenge my evil ways?
- 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. 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.
- 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!")
- 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.
- How can we discuss Pacino's legendary [[so cool it's awesome]] 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)
- 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)
- F. Murray AbraHAM as the face-stretching, scenery-chewing, Smug Snake Ru'afo in Star Trek Insurrection.
- He wasn't much less hammy as Salieri in Amadeus
- 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!!"
Sarek: Do you deny these facts?
John Schuck: We denyyyyyy nothing. We have the RIGHT to preSERVE our HAM!! RACE!!
-
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!
- This seems to be a habit with Gerard Butler. An acquaintance of this troper described his Phantom Of The Opera performance thusly: "It's like he has two levels: one and
eleven OVER NIIIINE THOUSAAAAND."
- 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.
- This troper remembers reading in a wrestling magazine that 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 *Censored by PC* 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."
- In an age when being a Large Ham was practically a requirement to appear in movies, John Barrymore - and of course his more stage-oriented siblings Lionel and Ethel - 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.
- 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.
- 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?!
- 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!!!!!!!*
- Cary Elwes in Ella Enchanted. "I order you to keel Char!" He was the only entertaining thing about an otherwise painfully bad movie.
- "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". 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).
- 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.
- 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 it's 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.
- 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 Arias... 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.
- 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 "Virginia has arrived".
- 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, 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
- 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. This troper has just about peed herself at 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. Evry 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.
Mr. Humberfloob: Fired.
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. Probably this troper's single favorite performance ever in a film, just for the sheer ham.
- Christopher Walken playing an outsize 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 it 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 something to the effect of "YEEAAARRRGIBLE!" 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
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 a Jane Austen novel, of all places: 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. Outwardly, he puts on one hell of a show for the average Imperial citizen, but in reality, he just wants to get away from it all - though 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. The above quote happened after he reported normally, the commander mentioned that he hadn't screwed up yet, and one pilot said "He won't do. Send him home. Get us another lunatic." It only gets better.
Lara: "A fellow Wraith says 'back me up', and you say 'I don't know'?
Elassar: "My apologies. Absolutely. You're right. In fact, we shouldn't knock. We should just blast the door lock and kick the door in."
- MST 3 K subject The Sword and the Dragon has everyone talk like this. One of the host spots had Bill playing the hero, actually yelling "For it is ham that I seek! Ham! HAAAAAMM!!!" It actually comes off as underplayed compared to the actual movie.
- What? No Galaxy Quest? Never give up! Never surrender!
- 1632: "My name is Ruy Sanchez de Casador y Ortiz. Prepare to die."
- 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.
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.
- Knight #2 from the first season episode "And the Sky Full of Stars". This Troper still thinks 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!
- Star Trek
- 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.
- This Troper preferred his final showdown with Dukat for 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 Republican 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"? ("Mis-ter Cha-ko-o-tay / Pre-pare a hy-po-spray!")
- 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.
- 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!!!"
- Doctor Who:
- 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!"
- Really, any incarnation of the Master who doesn't rattle the heavens and leave tooth marks on the scenery through the sheer force of his acting is just flat-out doing it wrong.
- Which is a good reason why the American Master is forgotten...
- Davros fits this trope like a glove. Some of his hammiest moments..
- 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?
- Apparently there's a gene in any person with the surname Baker that transforms them into concentrated ham when in the presence of a TARDIS.
- David Tennant. This troper wonders if his blood is made of espresso.
- Though over all more subtle than Four, Six, and Ten, Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor had some ham sandwiches in some episodes, including his scene alone with the Dalek in "Dalek" and a certain moment from "The Doctor Dances": "EVERYBODY LIVES, ROSE!!! JUST THIS ONCE, EVERYBODY LIVES!!"
- "Why don't you finish the job, and make the Daleks extinct? Rid the universe of your filth! Why don't you just DIE?!" Eccleston is literally foaming at the mouth by the end of this speech. Scary, awesome ham.
- 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."
- This is most likely an in-joke - the actor who played Omega in the show had so much ham in his performance, he would have out-hammed an actual chunk of ham ("THIS IS MYYYYYYY REALM!").
- The Mark of the Rani is one big three-way Ham-fest between Colin Baker as the Doctor ("DON'T MOVE, PERI! THE TREE WON'T HURT YOU!"), Anthony Ainley as the Master ("SHE'LL HAVE A SEIZURE!"), and Kate O'Mara as the Rani ("AND SO WILL ANYONE ELSE WHO INTERFERES!").
- 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!!!"
- But the ultimate moment of hamminess comes when he finally snaps upon seeing more than one Nimon, and Romana demands to know how many he saw: "IIIIIIIIII SAAAAAAAAAAAAAW TWOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!"
- In "The Daleks' Master Plan," Kevin Stoney is both nuanced and over-the-top at the same time, playing the traitorous "I, MAVIC Chen, GUARdian of the Solar System!"
- The Captain of "The Pirate Planet" was the biggest ham imaginable (and clearly intentional, with Douglas Adams writing the script), often very loudly exclaiming such things as "BY THE BURSTING SUNS OF BANTAR!" and "NO, BY THE WINGS OF THE SKY DEMON - I SAY NOOO!", but it turned out to be a case of Obfuscating Stupidity — he was actually an engineering genius and trying to hide it.
- The K-1 in "Robot" provides some nice moments of Robo-Ham: "AHHHHHH, I HAVE KILLED THE ONE WHO CREATED MEEEEEE!"
- How have we got through Doctor Who without mentioning Captain Jack Harkness?
- YOU...HAVE...GIVEN...THIS WOOOOORLD...TO...THE TRIIIIIIICKSTAAAAAAAAAH!
- Michael Jayston in his wonderful role as The Valyard also fits here wonderfully. He spits out lines like "You cannot speak as though reality is a one-dimensional concept." with such wonderful delight in his role - it's almost a shame he's not shown up again... even if his first apperance was 14 episodes long.
- The Carrionites in "The Shakespeare Code". Around 1:19.
- Doctor Who, in all its myriad incarnations, is a bountiful supply of ham. It's one of the things that makes the series so fun.
- 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 Airplane2, 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.
- 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 Loop 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.
- 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.
- 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 giveing 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- This troper has it on good authority that 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 La Rue 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 devolopment 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's 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
- John Larroquette's 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.
The Master: Yes, shake, Earth! This is a sign! We are in the final days! My time is come! Glory! GLORY!
- 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!
- 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 Space1999 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.
Fan Fic
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!"
- Japanese viewers get to hear him dubbed by Norio Wakamoto.
- 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.
- 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.
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 iteration, which kept the same actors, but the low-budget second head tends to remove much of the ham.
- This can also apply to the movie iteration of Zaphod.
- Hell, any version of Zaphod is generally 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, although this troper suspects he was mostly just 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 much quieter, more level performance and is easily scarier for it.
- The aptly named Tom Hamilton does play-by-play for the Cleveland Indians radio network and manages to turn nearly every play into something spectacular. Not to mention loud.
- And then there's the New York Yankees' radio broadcaster, John Sterling. Every Yankee home run sets off a Hurricane Of Puns, and then there's his overblown "Yankees win! Theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Yankees! Win!" at the end of every victory.
Theatre
Music
- A lot of rock frontmen have this sort of stage persona - David Lee Roth is probably the best example.
- This troper sees your David Lee Roth and raises you Scott Weiland. That's not including his concerts, where the dancing gets more over-the-top and he does stuff like getting naked onstage. He also likes to go overboard with the costumes (nothing but an American Flag and combat boots, full-on drag, KISS costume/makeup, dandyman suits, etc.). Most recently he seems to be going for the Western look now that he bears an uncanny resemblance to a young Clint Eastwood.
- When Axl Rose fans bash you for being too hammy, you know you've reached an entirely new level of ham.
- Shirley Bassey's singing style is the musical equivalent of Feed Me.
- And in the same vein, may I present kd lang's performance of "Tomorrow Never
Dies DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!"
- From the classic Stan Freberg album "Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America":
King Ferdinand: "I don't like the way the crew is acting!"
Columbus: "You're overplaying it a bit yourself there."
- Jack Black is very much this persona in his films and as part of Tenacious D.
- This is not the greatest ham in the world, this is just a tribute. Couldn't remember the greatest ham in the world, no this is a tribute.
- You can't kill The Metal. Metal will HAM on.
- LEE! LEE! LEE! LEE! LEE! LEE! WE'RE TALKIN F*** LEEE!.
- "I do not neeeeeed \ A Microphone \ My voice is ***ING POWERFUUUUULLLLL!"
- Meat Loaf's performance style suits a different form of meat than his stage name, that's all I'm sayin'.
- "LIFE IS A LEMON AND I WANT MY MONEY BAAAAAACK!"
- Jim Steinman's monologue "Wasted Youth" in Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell has enough ham to feed a family of four. For a week. "So...I...took...my...guitar...and I SMASHED IT AGAINST THE WALL! I SMASHED IT AGAINST THE FLOOR! I SMASHED IT AGAINST THE BODY OF A VARSITY CHEERLEADER!"
- Freddie Mercury.
- I WANT IT ALL! I WANT IT ALL! AND I WANT IT NOW!.
- Ronnie James Dio.
- Bruce Dickinson.
- "SCREAM FOR ME, <place of the gig>!"
- "CANNONS TO THE RIGHT OF THEM! CANNONS TO THE LEFT OF THEM!"
- [2] <i>The entire band</i> except for rhythm guitarist Pata. Specifically, lead singer Toshi and drummer/bandleader Yoshiki, though in this band's case, the ham, especially when engaged in by late former lead guitarist hide (Freddie Mercury, eat your heart out!), just added to the awesome. It's just not the same without him. :(
- Keith Moon [3]
- Sir Russell Allen [4]
- Not to mention his air-guitaring and having sword fights with inflatable swords on-stage during guitar solos when with Symphony X.
- Or Star One, Russell Allen, Damien Wilson and a few other Ayreon singers Ham it up large over such subjects as Star Trek VI, Blake's 7 and Dune. There's something surreal about two singers recreating a Blake/Avon conversation in song and making it more OOT than the original.
- The lyrics of any given Dragon Force song can quite easily be hammed to oblivion.
- Miyuki Nakajima, at times when performing songs in her Yakai concerts.
- The infamous O Holy Crap.
- This is supposed to be averted by narrators of Aaron Copland's "Lincoln Portrait", according to the composer's note:
The Speaker is cautioned against undue emphasis in the delivery of Lincoln's words. The words are sufficiently dramatic in themselves; they need no added "emotion" in order to put them across to an audience. They are meant to be read simply and directly, without a trace of exaggerated sentiment. It is the composer's wish that the Speaker depend for his effect not on his "acting" ability, but on his complete sincerity of manner. How Lincoln spoke these words we can never really know, but certainly we can all sense how not to read them.
- Pretty much every member of JAM Project. This Troper recently saw Masaaki Endoh and Hironobu Kageyama live and they were not only having lots of fun onstage, but pretty much competing with Ricardo Cruz to see who was the hammiest of the day.
- Weird Al Yankovic, for sure. "DARE TA BE STOOOOOPID!!!".
- EAT IT! EAT IT! GET YOURSELF AN EGG AND BEAT IT!.
- Candlemass lead singer Messiah Marcolin in the music video for "Bewitched."
- Bono, from 1990 onward. Particularly during the Zoo TV Tour.
- MY NAME IS MISTER MACPHISTO!
- Tom Jones, of course. His entire body of work makes one big example.
- SHE'S A LADY WOAH WOAH WOAH SHE'S A LADY TALKIN ABOUT MY LITTLE LADY AND THE LADY IS MINE!.
- Alice Cooper. 'LOVE ME! YES WE LOVE HIM! LOVE ME! YES WE LOVE HIM!.
- Michael Jackson is possibly the biggest ham in the universe.
- Rhapsody of Fire is this trope combined with the most in-your-face epic and fast symphonic power metal this side of Dragonforce teaming up with the London Philharmonic.
- Adding to the list of power metal singers, Tobias Sammet of Edguy definitely counts. "Lavatory Love Machine" is a joke song, but even so ...
- Janove Ottesen from norwegian balkan band; Kaizers Orchestra has made this into his trademark. Who can forget; LEGG MEEEEG INNNNNN PÅÅÅÅ DIETER MEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYERRRR
- Elvis Presley sometimes was like this with some of his songs in particular the song "If I Can Dream" from the 68 Comeback apecial which could be considered Crowning Music Of Awesome.
- Luciano Pavarotti.
- Rob Halford of Judas Priest. Not just for his bizarre leather outfits, but the fact that he used to arrive at Judas Priest concerts by driving a motorcycle on stage. Seriously.
- My Chemical Romance in general and lead singer Gerard Way in particular. The video for Helena is probably the campiest funeral you'll ever see in your life. And that's not even counting the groping of bandmates and wearing of boas and ludicrous marching band uniforms.
- Peter Hammill of Van Der Graaf Generator.
- Carl Smyth's opening line at the beginning of One Step Beyond by Madness: "HEY YOU! DON'T WATCH THAT! WATCH THIS! THIS IS THE HEAVY HEAVY MONSTER SOUND! ONE... STEP... BEYOND!" And the rest of the otherwise totally instrumental piece is interspersed with him yelling, "ONE STEP BEYOND!"
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!"
- The game also seems to inspire its fans towards approaching the setting with massive amounts of ham. This troper can attest that friendly games tend to involve more ham than a holiday dinner.
- This troper can attest to that. He was known to let out a heroic battle-cry when moving his
Space Marine Assault Squads legendary heroes of the Imperium into base contact with anything.
- 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.
- Unless he's just plain Ax Crazy. This troper remembers being in a part with a blue-skinned gnome barbarian named Bob. Then again, this troper was in no place to judge after using a running jump while holding his quarterstaff by one end rather than in the center to bat a dire bat out of the sky. (I was playing a druid at the time. We didn't have much in the way of ranged attacks, so I improvised.)
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.
- While Marcus Fenix of Gears Of War is not much of a Large Ham, and in fact more Unfunny, but he has dabbled in it. In Gears Of War 2, there is an area where, if he kills enemies in a row with a sniper rifle, will yell while getting consecutively louder: "That's one!", "That's two!", "That's three!", "That's four!", "THAT'S FIVE, MOTHERFUCKERS!"
- Let us not for a moment forget the REAL 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. This Troper was simultaneously in stitches and pumped up for battle.
- DynastyWarriors, 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.
- 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!
- 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. This troper thinks 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.
- In the intro to Kane's Wrath, Kane's epic speech is so hammy that it comes complete with earthquakes punctuating his sentences.
- This troper eagerly anticipates the Incoming Ham of Command And Conquer: Red Alert 3. Judging from the cast list — Tim Curry, Jonathan Pryce, J.K. Simmons, and George Takei — conoisseurs of ham are in for some good times.
- This troper can happily say that 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. this troper can only conclude that EA is trying to create some sort of Ham Singularity.
- 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.
- This troper theorizes that 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 this troper 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.
- 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.
- 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?
- "The name's Axel. A-X-E-L. Got it memorized?"
- 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!
- 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!!"
- 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.
- Crispin Freeman is wonderful.
- "I will show you the greatest nightmare!"
- "I have defeated fleets of THOUSANDS. CONSUMED a galaxy of FLESH and MIND and HAM!
- And don't forget that "I am TRUTH! The VOICE...OF...THE COVENANT!"
- 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??!?
- 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!"
- 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. This troper was laughing hysterically all throughout her battle with him, because 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!"
But giving him a voice actor in Final Fantasy XII took his hamminess to new levels:
"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!!!"
- 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."
- How have we come so far with no mention of Barry Burton from Resident Evil? Barry. Burton. As in "a DINING room!" "You would have been a JILL sandwich!" This man is truly the biggest ham in video game history.
- No, no, no. 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! LUUUUUUUUUIS!"
- 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!
- 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, and the Terran Vulture. Some voice actor was evidently having a lot of fun while recording that game.
- 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.
- 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.
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.
- 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...
- Funnily enough, one strip has a Ship Tease moment between him and 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!
- Dominic Deegan. Yes. Yes, he is/was. One of three sons of a famous bard, the Deegan boys all inherited one of the father's artistic traits. Jacob, the oldest, is an incredible writer. Greg, the youngest, is a musician and singer every bit as talented as his father. Dominic, on the other hand, got his father's penchant for acting. And although it only came up once or twice (and was Played For Laughs), Dominic was greviously hammy.
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.
- Doctor Horrible himself becomes Doctor Hamible in the last act, during the song "Slipping."
- 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.
Western Animation
- Coach McGuirk from Home Movies, especially in the Episode where he's deprived of sleep.
- Eric Cartman in South Park.
- 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.)
- 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!"
- 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!"
- 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 and 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!
- 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...
- 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.
- "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 Stepmother 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.
- 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.
- 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!
- 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 mention of Wizardheimer?
- 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!"
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Any villain voiced by Tim Curry in an animated movie. Especially Hexxus from Ferngully.
- Rasputin from Anastasia and Ludmilla from Bartok The Magnificent.
- 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 villan side, we have Negaduck (who's 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?
- 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!!!"
- 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!!
- 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!!
- 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!"
- 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!"
- The Toad from Flushed Away was written as a ham, and played by Ian Mc Kellen. His hamminess gets on everyone's nerves.
- 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...
Other
- Lucifer is played this way in many of his incarnations... It's so common that presenting him as low key or mellow is a subversion of his normal character
- Anyone listening to the audiobook of Neverwhere can tell that Neil Gaiman had a blast reading the part of Mr. Croup.
- Elvis Presley is caricaturised as this sometimes.
- Jacob P. Galvatron of [My Way]Entertainment's Transformers parody.
- George the Volcano, from the UK Volvic ads. "Hel-lo, Tyrannosaurus Allan! I'm filling my water with volcanicity!"
- Some many parodists on Hamiright.com can be extremely hammy including Hogrimorfee (Agrimorfee), Red Ham (Red Ant) and Hammy G (Chucky G).
- Peyton Manning can really CUT THAT HAM in his commercial appearances.
- Steve Ballmer in this W Indows commercial.
- Vince Offer. He practically sells himself.
Real Life
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