History Main / HamToHamCombat

* ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood'': Prince John as a spoiled, petulant brat, vs. Sir Hiss as a neurotic, scheming chancellor, devour the scenery with gusto. Matters get even hammier when Little John shows up in the royal box in disguise as the Duke of Chutney.

** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E3TheMarkOfTheRani The Mark of the Rani]]" has a three-way ham-fest among Creator/ColinBaker's Doctor, Anthony Ainley's Master and Kate O'Mara's Rani, and it is glorious.

* ''Film/TheUnbearableWeightOfMassiveTalent'' forms a forbidden bromance between Creator/NicolasCage and Creator/PedroPascal, the latter of whom has, in real life, cited Cage as an inspiration for his consistently powerful performances.

[[quoteright:299:[[Film/AngerManagement https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/anger_management_3667.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:299:[[UnstoppableForceMeetsImmovableObject When the unstoppable pork meets the immovable sausage]].]]

* Frequently seen in high school drama classes, both on stage, and even more often it will happen when participating in improvisation games.

When a work is populated by more than one LargeHam, and at least two get a scene together, it will usually turn into Ham-to-Ham Combat, where they try to out-over dramatic each other. The scene can become either [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments really funny]] or [[{{Narm}} really corny]], or both, and ''really fast''. If it goes too far, it may reach a [[{{Pun}} Hormel Event Horizon]].

*** And Dr. Finkelstein, the local MadScientist [[spoiler:whose been [[BrainwashedAndCrazy Brain Swapped and Crazier]]]] (nuff said).

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lqM62th0Ro A mythic scene from French cinema]] is in ''Film/TheTripAcrossParis'' (''La Traversée de Paris''), the dispute between Jambier (Creator/LouisDeFunes) and Grandgil (Creator/JeanGabin). The script required for Gabin's character to be as loud as possible; Gabin was a living legend and de Funès was not the King of French LargeHam yet. Nevertheless (and despite being visibly intimidated), de Funès held his own, [[StarMakingRole and was noticed by a lot of people]].

* De Funés again: in ''Film/LeGendarmeDeSaintTropez'' series, Cruchot and Gerber (Michel Galabru) often compete with each other on who can ham it up the most (particularly in the last films).

* ''Series/{{Psych}}'': There are at least flashes of this in either of William Shatner's appearances as Juliet's dad, any time he and Creator/JamesRoday share screen time.

* ''Film/{{Birdman}}'' has this in-universe: Riggan Thompson is a stage actor, and suspects that his co-star Mike Shiner is overacting to try to steal the show.

* Basically a recurring element in {{Soap Opera}}s. This can go far with Latin American ''telenovelas'', and Filipino ''teleseryes'' which were influenced by the aforementioned telenovelas.

* ''Film/TheTenCommandments'' has, quite literally, an epic (indeed, Biblically Epic!) ham fight between Yul "As it is written so let it be done!" Brenner and Charlton "Let my people go!" Heston. The high water mark of classic Hollywood hamminess? And then Anne Baxter enters the fray and nearly outdoes both of them.

-->'''[[BaldOfAwesome Umibozu]]''': Wh-Who's bald? I shaved my head!

** Creator/ColinBaker ''again'' in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E5Timelash Timelash]]" where he squares off against Paul [[Series/BlakesSeven "Avon"]] Darrow. As has been said elsewhere, the resulting combat has to be seen to be disbelieved.

* ''Series/RuPaulsDragRace'' runs on this trope. In addition to the PassiveAggressiveKombat and screaming matches between {{drag queen}}s that make up a normal episode, the two worst contestants in a challenge are forced into a "Lip Synch for your LIFE!" dance-off. The backstage companion series ''[=RuPaul=]'s Drag Race: Untucked'' has become notorious for its bitchfights, though past contestants have admitted that, at least in the earlier seasons, they were getting drunk off endless free cocktails during the ''Untucked'' portion. Eventually, production limited the queens to only ''two'' drinks, but this didn't entirely stop the fighting:

* ''Series/RuPaulsDragRace'' runs on this trope. In addition to the PassiveAggressiveKombat and screaming matches between {{drag queen}}s that make up a normal episode, the two worst contestants in a challenge are forced into a "Lip Synch for your LIFE!" dance-off. The backstage companion series ''[=RuPaul=]'s Drag Race: Untucked'' has become notorious for this:

* In ''Film/Hook'', two very large hams (Creator/RobinWilliams and Creator/DustinHoffman) chew the scenery to pieces in their individual scenes (which takes place in a WorldOfHam), but when they come together for battle, it's magic.

* ''WebComic/HetaliaAxisPowers'': This show may be [[AnthropomorphicPersonifications anthropomorphic personifications]] of countries on the surface, but you'd be surprised on how much screaming occurs more than talking.

* ''Film/JudgeDredd''. Dredd, as an over-the-top police officer, and Rico, as an over-the-top villain, [[LargeHam ham it up]] throughout the entire movie. When they finally meet near the end, though, the pork hits the fan. [[spoiler:Justified, in that they are [[TheReveal revealed]] to be long-separated twins. [[CloningBlues Clones, actually.]]]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueYUwcZV-n0 "YOU BETRAYED THE LAW!!" "LAAAAAAAW!"]]

-->'''Vridi:''' Darn it, Hades! Get your filthy troops out of my bomb depot!\\

* The ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' is a WorldOfHam, but having BigBad Irenicus (Creator/DavidWarner) facing off with Minsc (Creator/JimCummings) in ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'' is incredibly, epically hamtastic.

* Dante vs. Agnus before their fight in ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry 4'', a bizarre in-universe example. For starters, the fight happened in a trashed opera house, so we have Agnus opening with poetic dialogue and Dante following suit, complete with stage lights (whoever mans them probably does so out of fear of evisceration) as well as stage props like benches and confetti. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySY5YMoBp7c It really has to be seen.]]

* Shadow vs Mephiles in ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006''. Mephiles spends his sweet time chewing the scenery while Shadow tries to [[ShutUpHannibal shut him up]]. In Shadow's [[VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog self-titled game]], it's basically him vs. Black Doom vs. Dr. Eggman. Oddly enough, Shadow's fairly low-key in ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'', his debut game.

*** Oogie Boogie, who is voiced by Ken Page, who has voiced some of the hammiest musical characters in in the last 30 years.

** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E5TheHornsOfNimon The Horns of Nimon]]": Lalla Ward almost manages to out-ham ''Creator/TomBaker himself''. He resists the onslaught, but then, unbelievably, they are ''both'' beaten — completely and utterly beaten — by Graham Crowden as Soldeed. His famous [=DREEEeeeAAAAaaAaAAAAms of CONquest=] are only the icing on the cake. He overacts so outrageously that he manages to [[{{Corpsing}} corpse]] during his own death scene and it was still put in because it wasn't breaking character.

* ''Film/DungeonsAndDragons'' features the rare treat of Creator/JeremyIrons locked in a battle of the hams with [[FascinatingEyebrow his own eyebrows.]] A scene had a weird variant: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p5w8oR-OYM Overacting vs Underacting]], with Irons' bombast against Creator/ThoraBirch's DullSurprise.

** PlayedWith in WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic's review of ''Film/DungeonsAndDragons'', when he ordained a contest between Profion's [[LargeHam hammy overacting]] and the Empress' [[DullSurprise quiet underacting]]. Ultimately he decided [[TakeAThirdOption they both sucked equally]].