"Spider-Ham: Caught in a Ham" is a short animated film directed by Miguel Jiron and created by Phil Lord & Chris Miller. It was released in the DVD and Blu-ray of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (and officially named a part of the Spider-Man: Spider-Verse franchise) and tells what wacky adventures Spider-Ham was having just before he gets transported to that movie's timeline.
Watch the short film here
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"Spider-Ham: Caught in a Ham" provides examples of:
- Affably Evil: Doctor Crawdaddy is surprisingly amicable when he's not trying to kill Spider-Ham.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Spider-Ham tells the audience about his desire to eat a hot dog.
- Brick Joke: Spider-Ham's hot dog pops out of the portal in the end.
- Canon Foreigner: Doctor Crawdaddy and every single supervillain described by Spider-Ham were created for the short. (Sony would only have the rights to Doctor Octopussy Cat, the Buzzard, Black Catfish, and other animal versions of Spider-Man affiliated villains.)
- Character Focus: Spider-Ham is the star of this cartoon.
- Circling Birdies: Spider-Ham sees stars when Doctor Crawdaddy throws him against the door, and Spider-Ham grabs one of his stars and throws it at Doctor Crawdaddy.
- Conveyor Belt o' Doom: Doctor Crawdaddy straps Spider-Ham onto a table with a laser.
- Duck Season, Rabbit Season: Spider-Ham and Doctor Crawdaddy get into an argument about whether or not the villain will get away with it. Also, they both switch places when the argument shifts.
- The End... Or Is It?: It ends with a Looney Tunes-style circle with text appears reading "The End...?" It then flickers with the colors of the multiverse portal before cutting to the copyright screen.
- Gainax Ending: The alternate universe shenanigans come out of pretty much nowhere in an otherwise character-focused short.
- Homage: The whole short is presented in the style of a Looney Tunes short.
- Hurricane of Puns: Lots of puns, especially pig-related ones.
- Impact Silhouette: Spider-Ham defeats Doctor Crawdaddy by using his mallet to knock him through a dozen of walls, leaving his silhouette in every one.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
- Doctor Crawdaddy says that each room in his lair is the same because they ran out of money.
- Spider-Ham hopes he hasn't missed the first 62 minutes of another movie (the exact time his introduction in said movie takes place).
- Let's Meet the Meat: Spider-Ham insists that his hot dog isn't pork. He then whispers that he is lying.
- Limited Animation: Spider-Ham runs into a room that looks exactly like the previous room.Spider-Ham: Hold it! Am I crazy or is this just the same room I was in?
Doctor Crawdaddy: Yeah, we ran out of money so I figured we just have every room look the same. - Medium Awareness: Spider-Ham is created with a computer program, and he demands full-screen treatment when we see the desktop.
- Medium-Shift Gag: During a part of the Scooby-Dooby Doors sequence, Spider-Ham and Doctor Crawdaddy turn into a pork leg and a real-life crayfish.
- Neon Sign Hideout: Doctor Crawdaddy's evil villain lair is signaled by large neon letters saying "Evil Villain Lair".
- Ninja Prop:
- Spider-Ham gets circling stars around his head and throws one of them like a shuriken at Doctor Crawdaddy.
- The animator from another dimension uses the timeline feature on the program to repeatedly smash Spider-Ham into the screen's corner.
- Public Domain Soundtrack: The music is nothing but classical music excerpts.
- Punny Name: Discussed by Spider-Ham when he explains the concept to Doctor Crawdaddy.Spider-Ham: I tango with guys like Annihilape, Goose Cannon, The Magestic Cariboom, Cyber Billygoat, Renigator, Big Clamurai, Tortoise Bombshell, Telecanary, W-M-Bees, Nuclear Boarhead. Guys like them. You wanna run with the big hogs, you gotta nail that pun or we're done.
- Scooby-Dooby Doors: Doctor Crawdaddy pursues Spider-Ham, and they run through these, with many wacky variations along the way.
- Shout-Out:
- Doctor Crawdaddy straps Spider-Ham onto a table with a laser like the one in Goldfinger.
- Spider-Ham is created on an in-universe desktop environment and gets into an argument with the animator, like "Duck Amuck" meets Animator vs. Animation.
- "Take That!" Kiss: Spider-Ham gets Doctor Crawdaddy in his own trap and gives him a big smooch.
- Tempting Fate: "Nothing's going to get in the way of me eating this hot dog."
