Large Ham / Music

"GODDAMNIT LADY YOU KNOW I AIN'T LYIN' TO YA I'M ONLY GONNA TELL YOU ONE MORE TIMEEEEEEYAH!"

Hams who chew microphones instead of scenery.

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Rock

• A lot of rock frontmen have this sort of stage persona.
• David Lee Roth is probably the best example, so much so that he gets his own soundboard.
  • His successor in Van Halen, Sammy Hagar, has his moments too.
• Scott Weiland fits this trope. That's not including his concerts, where the dancing gets more over-the-top and he does stuff like getting naked onstage, dandyman suits, etc..
• Steve Perry deserves a mention: "All night oh every night! Hold tight hold tight! Oh every night! (beat) She said, hold oooooooooo-oooooon!!!" Not to mention, that pretty hair and those painted-on-pants he wore in "Just The Same Way". And he's still hammy at 66! Just look!
• Axl Rose. Even as he became literally larger, his bombast didn't dial down. Given GNR fans bash Scott Weiland for being too hammy, you know he's reached an entirely new level of ham.

  "YOU KNOW WHERE YOU ARE? YOU'RE IN THE JUNGLE BABY! YOU'RE GONNA DIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAH!"

• 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!"
  • Jim Steinman is the King Midas of ham. Just listen to his work with Bonnie Tyler, Air Supply ("Making Love Out of Nothing at All"), and Celine Dion ("It's All Coming Back to Me Now").
    • And Taylor Dayne (with "Original Sin (Theme From The Shadow)").
    • And Sisters of Mercy (on "This Corrosion").
• Freddie Mercury.
  I WANT IT ALL! I WANT IT ALL! AND I WANT IT NOW!.
  • Then there's this video.
  • "FLASH! A-AAAAAH! SAVIOR. OF. THE UNIVERSE!. You know a song is a monument to hamminess when even John Deacon and his bass are thick and porky and what not.
  • Freddie is so intense that everyone who tries replacing him on Queen goes through bombast with no shame. Behold the colossal ham that is Adam Lambert singing "Killer Queen".
• The Who's Keith Moon
  • The actual singer, Roger Daltrey, can get quite passionate.
• Bono, from 1990 onward. Particularly during the Zoo TV Tour.
  MY NAME IS MISTER MACPHISTO!
• Alice Cooper: Alice puts on a show, where he could be killed several times in the show, in ways that include some servings of ham. He likens his show to Vaudeville. Groucho Marx and Mae West, among others were fans of his stage show. Each concert for a number of years ends with him introducing the band, and his wife and/or daughter as dancers. He hams that up, before introducing himself, "And playing the part of Alice Cooper tonight, ME!"
• Peter Hammill of Van der Graaf Generator. Due to his serving as a Jesuit choirboy for much of his youth, his regular singing voice is already huge, deep, and bombastic. Adding to the dramatic effect is his tendency to unexpectedly break into piercing shrieks and growls. Incredibly overblown, but mightily entertaining at the same time.
  • So you live in the... bottom of the sea... and you kill... all that come NEEEEAAAAAARRRRRR YOOOUUUUUUUUU-HOOOOO-HOOOO-HOOOO-HOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOO-HOO-HOO-HOO-HOO-HOO-HOOOO!!!!!
  • And as the waves crash on the bleak! Stones of the tower I start to FREEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAK! AND FIND! I'M! OH! VER! COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeee....
• Morrissey, dear lord, Morrissey. "TO DIIIIIE BY YOUR SIDE IS SUCH A HEAVENLY WAY TO DIIIIIIIIEEEEEE!!" Especially that falsetto of his.
• Elvis Presley could occasionally evoke this trope in particular the song "If I Can Dream" from the 68 Comeback special.
• My Chemical Romance in general and lead singer Gerard Way in particular. His theatrical vocals and equally theatrical stage presence make for a potent combo. He's even been known to climb lighting rigs and jump from ten feet high, and he loves donning various costumes to reflect whatever character he may be embodying at the time.
  • One of the best examples is the music video for "Famous Last Words", which is deliciously campy, but also slides right into horror territory—especially if you've seen the leaked version of the video. Another good example is "Helena", which is probably the campiest funeral you'll ever see.
  • I'm really not so with you anymore, I'm just a ghost, so I can't hurt you anymore, SO I CAN'T HURT YOU ANYMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!
  • LET ME GO, FUCK!
• America has Gerard Way and My Chemical Romance; Norway has Kaizers Orchestra and Janove Ottesen. The whole band embraces campy-ness. Helge Risa plays a pump organ with a picture of Martin Luther and a lamp on it. While wearing a gas mask. And they use oil barrels and crowbars as percussion instruments. And they sometimes dance on top of said oil barrels.
• Matthew Bellamy of Muse. His sky-scraping tenor vocals and equally theatrical delivery of guitar and piano solos are coupled with a fittingly hyperactive and eccentric stage presence that further accentuates the drama.
  • Why split these states when THERE CAN ONLY BE OOONNEE?!'''
  • EURASIA! SIA! SIA! SIA!
  • YOU WILL NEVER OWN ME AGAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIAAAAAAAANYEEAAAAAHHHH!!!
  • Give meeeeeeeeee-yerrrrrr! All of the peace! And joy in your mind! I want the peace! And joy in your miiiind. Give me the peace! And joy in your mind! Oooooooooooooooooh! - from Bliss. We get it, Matt.
  • For Matt's ultimate escapade in hamminess, listen to this, specifically 2:36.
  • YOUR SUUUUPREMACYYYYYYAAAAYYAAAYYYAAWOOOOOO
• Jim Morrison: Father? Yes, son? I want to kill you. Mother? I want to...FUCK YOU!
• Robert Plant. Legend has it that at one of their first shows, the amps cut out, and the people in the back of the auditorium could still hear him.
• KISS — they even dressed up and put on make-up, to amplify the hamminess.
  "Some people are hams...I'm the whole pig" - Paul Stanley
  "FEEL MY HEAT, TAKING YOU HIGHER"
  "SHOUT IT! SHOUT IT! SHOUT IT OUT LOUUUUD!"
  "I WANNA ROCK AND ROLL ALL NIIIIGHT"
• The late Layne Staley:
  Why...you...act...crazy?!? Not...an...act...maybe?!? So...close...a...lady! Shif...ty...eyes...shady!
  IF! I! WOULD! COULD! YOU?
• Thom Yorke of Radiohead is usually subdued. But when the song requires passion, he'll get over-the-top impressively.
  RUN, RUN, RUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNN!
  YOU HAVE NOT BEEN PAYING ATTENTION, PAYING ATTENTION, PAYINATTENTION!
• Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull. Especially live.
• Chester Bennington could get quite hammy, especially in songs like "Crawling", "Blackout" and "The Messenger".
• Henry Rollins: CAUSE I'M A LIAR!!!
• Steve Albini of Big Black, Rapeman and Shellac. A particularly wild and sociopathic example. His Shellac sidekick Bob Weston throws large pieces of ham at the audience as well, and drummer Todd Trainer plays the All Drummers Are Animals trope as straight one possibly can do.
  Especially in concert. Hammed up to eleven in this one, but no idea what they are singing.
  Only in persona. In interviews and lectures, he is almost the exact opposite.
• Geddy Lee, especially in the early days, before he learned to take his register down a notch.
  BY-TOR! AND THE SNOW DOG!
• Fred Durst. "I'D EAT YOU ALIIIIIIIVE!!!!"
  • The opening of the "Rollin'" video has some particularly delicious (and Narm-y) ham: "All riiight, partner. Keep on rollin', baby. You know what time it is." Later parodied on Mad TV.
• Joe Cocker - to the point where John Belushi did an over-the-top and brilliant parody of him.
• The Band's Robbie Robertson is one of these throughout the Martin Scorsese-directed concert documentary The Last Waltz.
• When he was fronting Oingo Boingo, Danny Elfman was as hammy as they came, especially during live performances. And if Jack Skellington and Mr.Bonejangles are anything to go by, composing hasn't done anything to stop him.
• While capable of delicate subtlety, David Bowie has long been this...and once music videos took off, it opened up a whole new world of hamminess. A small sample of the evidence...
  • "Boys Keep Swinging": Oh, one might argue those ladies singing backup are bigger hams — wait a minute....
  • "D.J.": A Stepford Smiler has quite the meltdown.
  • "Dancing in the Street": Watch out for the infamous Ham-to-Ham Combat with Mick Jagger in this one...
  • The title track of 2013's The Next Day, his first studio album in almost 10 years, proves he hasn't lost the ability to ham it up vocally ("And the next day, and the next, and another day!"). The music video, which is NSFW, adds more ham with an appearance by Gary Oldman as a not-so-pious priest who gets freaked out by Bowie and company's antics.
• Roger Waters of Pink Floyd sometimes qualifies for this, especially on "The Gunner's Dream:" NIGHT AFTER NIGHT, GOING 'ROUND AND 'ROUND MY BRAIN...HIS DREAM IS DRIVING ME INSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANE...in the corner of some foreign field, a gunner sleeps tonight...
  • Animals has plenty of it, most notably on "Sheep":
  WHAT DO YOU GET for pretending the danger's not reeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllll
  • Waters' solo albums frequently make his Floyd work look positively restrained. Especially "Dunroamin, Duncarin, Dunlivin."
  • He's pretty hammy on much of The Wall, but "The Trial" takes it up to eleven, with Roger hamming it up in six different voices.
    TEAR! DOWN! THE WALL! TEAR! DOWN! THE WALL!
    • You might have noticed that given the examples, Waters only started to ham up as he took over the band and had more tracks to sing.
• Bruce Springsteen. Notable in that there are people who bash hammy singers - and still like him because they say his point is to be hammy.
• Harvey Danger. Especially "Flagpole Sitta": PARANOIA, PARANOIA! EVERYBODY'S COMING TO GET ME!
• Kate Bush.
  • Exhibits A, B, and, most famously, C.
• Bryan Adams was particularly this during his partnership with Robert "Mutt" Lange. Mostly averted on his lesser-known albums such as Into The Fire, Room Service and On a Day Like Today.
• Steven Tyler, who at times does entire sections of the song in a Metal Scream.
• Spinal Tap. These hams go to eleven.
• Virtually everything by Vanilla Fudge, with this performance on the Ray Anthony show being probably their most over-the-top moment.
• Despite singing about sexual addiction, rape, murder, love gone wrong, and a host of other messed up horror movie-inspired situations, Ludo as a whole is about as Hammy as Hams can get. Hell, Andrew Volpe alone qualifies the entire band. All the proof is right here.
• For some Imagine Dragons songs, Dan Reynolds really knows how to hit the high notes, and only as one volume: LOUD.
  "WHOAOAOAOAWHOAAA WHOAOAOAOWHOAAA I'M RADIOACTIVE! RADIOACTIVE!"
  "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHH DIG MY SHALLOW GRAVE! It's not meeee you'll save, 'Cause I'm a lost cause. I'M A LOST CAUSE! A LOOOOOOOOST CAAAUUUUSE!"
  "A MONNSTER A MMONNTSER AND IT KEEPS GETTING STRONNGEERRR"
  "I can taste it, the end is upon us, I swear, gonna make it... I'M GONNA MAAAAAAAAAKE IIIIIIIIIIIIT!!!!!"
  "THUN-DAH!! FEEL THE THUN-DAH! (BLAM BLAM BLAM) LIGHT-NEENG AND THE THUN-DAH!"
• Mick Jagger certainly enjoys himself. Add the fact his "dance moves" are often Milking the Giant Cow...
• Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy at times gets really emphatic ("This ain't a scene, it's a GOD DAMNED ARMS RACE!"). Great example is "My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark", which culminates in a David Lee Roth impression:
  "So light em up (up, up), light em up (up, up), light em up (up, up), I'M ON FIYYYYAAAAAAAAAAH!"
• Marianas Trench, although mostly in their music videos and the behind-the-scenes videos: HOT CHOC-O-LATE!, Pomegranate? Awwwwwww maaaaaaaan! and hamming up just how bad at dancing Josh Ramsay is ("Nice moves, Riverdance!"). A lot of the song "Pop 101" has intentional ham, as it's a parody of pop music. Some highlights include I can pitch-shift mah voice if aye wahnt and the ending beatboxing.
  bootsandcatsandbootsandcats and JOSH-U-A RAM-SAAAAY
• The band Electric Six has basically made their career on this. GIRL! I WANNA TAKE YOU TO A GAY BAR!
• Ronnie Radke of Escape the Fate and Falling in Reverse.
• Kung by Phish.
• Arthur Brown: I AM THE GOD OF HELLFIRE AND I BRING YOU... FIRE!!!
  • On The Alan Parsons Project's debut album Tales of Mystery and Imagination Brown plays the narrator in the adaptation of Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart", and goes wildly over the top.
  Louder and louder,
  Till I could tell the sound was not within my ears.
  You should have seen me,
  You would have seen my eyes grow white and cold with fear!
  Heard all the things in Heaven and Earth,
  I've seen many things in Hell,
  But his vulture's eye of a cold, pale blue —
  IT'S THE EYE OF THE DEVIL HIMSELF!
• Evanescence, anyone?
  "BRIIIIIIING!!! MEEEEE!!! TOOOO!!! LIIIIIFE!!!"
  From the same song, the growled "WAKE ME UP!", "CAN'T WAKE UP!", and of course "SAAAAAAAAAYVEEE MEEEE!" backup vocals.
• Billy Joel can be this, occasionally. Usually - such as in the case of "All for Leyna" or "The Downeaster 'Alexa'" - it makes the song even better.
• Getting hammy only adds to the goofiness of derided bands like Nickelback ("LOOKADISS PHOTOGRAPH!") or Creed ("WHEN YOU AH WITH ME! AH'M FREEEEE!"). Chad Kroeger and Scott Stapp aren't mocked for nothing, and the latter's Yarling helps the parodying.
• AC/DC has both the singers ("SPOTLIGHTS! SIRENS! RIFLES! FIRING!") and guitarist Angus Young, a Class-A Keet who's constantly mugging and spasming.
• Johnny Rotten: "Anarchy in the U.K." is all the more classic for how hammy it is right from the moment Rotten opens his mouth: "R-R-R-R-RIGHT! Noooooowwwwww! Hahahahahahahaha!"
• If we allow for musicians as well as vocalists to count as hams, then Progressive Rock is the musical equivalent of this trope and is a veritable goldmine of hams. Keyboardists seem to be particularly susceptible to this (Matt Bellamy may be incredibly hammy on the microphone, but he's equally hammy on the piano and guitar; Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman are also excellent examples of hammy prog keyboardists), but there are plenty of hams on other instruments as well (Neil Peart of Rush, Bill Bruford of King Crimson and Yes, Steve Hackett of Genesis, Steve Howe of Yes).
• As for prog vocalists not mentioned above, special mention has to go to Peter Gabriel, as he introduced a level of theatricality never seen before in rock, and this certainly carried over to his vocal performances. He's toned it down somewhat in his solo career, but see songs like "The Return of the Giant Hogweed", "The Musical Box", "The Fountain of Salmacis", "Get 'Em Out by Friday", "Supper's Ready", "The Battle of Epping Forest", "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway", and "In the Cage" for prime Gabriel-era ham. His successor on the microphone, Phil Collins, was no slouch either, and kept this up throughout his tenure with the band as well as in his solo career; good examples include "Dance on a Volcano", "Eleventh Earl of Mar", "Mama", "That's All", "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight", "No Son of Mine", and "In the Air Tonight".
• Cedric Bixler Zavala of At the Drive-In and The Mars Volta deserves mention here as well. Songs like "Chanbara", "Arcarsenal", "Catacombs", "Cosmonaut", "Invalid Litter Dept.", "Eunuch Provacateur", "Roulette Dares", "Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt", "L'Via L'Viaquez", and "Day of the Baphomets" are prime sources of musical ham, not to mention the latter band's thirty-two-minute epic "Cassandra Gemini", which is thirty-two minutes of nonstop musical scenery-chewing.
• Red Hot Chili Peppers has quite a passionate singer in Anthony Kiedis ("GIVE IT AWAY, GIVE IT AWAY, GIVE IT AWAY NOW!")... but the biggest ham in the band is Lead Bassist Michael "Flea" Balzary.
• Just the fact that Twisted Sister performs in hideous clothing and make-up shows they are over-the-top. And singer Dee Snider backs the claim up accordingly!
  There's only one thing I can say to you... I WANNA ROCK! (ROCK!)
  You can't escape from the bed you've made; when your time has come, you'll accept the..... BBBLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADE!!!
• R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe defined Alternative Rock ham in the '80s and '90s, via unmatched Tranquil Fury and a theatrical sense of mannerism and poise, made more pronounced in his Vocal Evolution from unintelligible introversion to his more well-known expressive and direct style.
• While everyone in DAY6 has their moments of Keet-level hyperactivity during live performances, lead guitarist/vocalist Jae takes the cake with his frenzied, impassioned stage presence - he's well-known for his spins, high-flying jumps, and kicks, theatrical expressions and gestures, leaping off of stage risers in the middle of riffs or solos and the fact that he still manages to not miss a single beat or sound out-of-breath.

Metal

• This genre loves large hams as a whole.
• MANOWAR are considered the Largest Hams in all of Heavy Metal. Those who disagree should leave the hall.
• Ronnie James Dio. A vocal and singing style made of pure Christmas ham, and beloved for it. See 'Shame On The Night', 'Stargazer,' 'Holy Diver,' 'We Rock', 'I',... the list goes on.
  • Speaking of Christmas, he even managed to ham up the odd carol.
• Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden.
  "SCREAM FOR ME, <place of the gig>!"
  • Taken to the obvious extreme - Bruce Dickinson's official website? www.screamforme.com
  "CANNONS TO THE RIGHT OF THEM! CANNONS TO THE LEFT OF THEM!"
  • RUN! TO! THE! HILLS! RUN! FOR! YOUR! LIIIIIVES!
  • "BRIGHTER THAN A THOUSAND SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNS!"
  • His appearance on the single version of Wheatus' Wannabe Gangstar is definitely this trope. His sole contribution is "YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH-OWWWWWWWWW"
• X Japan. The entire band except for rhythm guitarist Pata. Specifically, lead singer Toshi and drummer/pianist/bandleader Yoshiki, though in this band's case, the ham, especially when engaged in by late former lead guitarist hide just added to the awesome. It's just not the same without him.
• The lyrics of any given DragonForce song can quite easily be hammed to oblivion.
• 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.
  • Two minutes and ten seconds into "Tears of a Dying Angel," prepare for the tons of ham.
    • Any band that gets Christopher Lee to narrate one of their albums is worth several times their weight in ham.
    • And if you are Christopher Lee and somebody else is narrating your album, it's still one of the hammiest albums ever recorded, with plenty of catchy ("shed the blood of the Saxon men...") and Awesome Music.
• Presenting vocalist Kamijo of Versailles, who has a habit of swooshing about in over the top stage costumes whilst being as ridiculously dramatic as is humanly possible. Expect the giant cow to get a good milking when he's in full flow. It says a lot about him that he's known for being excessively over-the-top in a movement whose entire point is being excessively over-the-top.
• Adding to the list of power metal singers, Tobias Sammet of Edguy definitely counts. "Lavatory Love Machine" is a joke song, but even so ...
• Candlemass lead singer Messiah Marcolin in the music video for "Bewitched."
  • In fact, Messiah hams it up in nearly every song he sings.
• James Hetfield: HATE! HATE! I'M YOUR HATE! I'M YOUR HATE WHEN YOU WANT LOVE!
  "HUNT YOU DOWN WITHOUT MERCY! HUNT YOU DOWN ALL NIGHTMARE LONG!"
  "THIS I SWEAR! THIS I SWEAR! THIS! I! SWEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR!"
  • Even after losing good friend and bandmate Cliff Burton, Hetfield still maintains the ham:
    DRINK UP, SHOOT IN!! LET THE BEAT-INGS BEGIN!! DIS-TRIB-U-TOR OF PAIN! YOUR LOSS BECOMES MY GAIN!!!
    ALL HAVE SAID THEIR PRAYERS - INVADE THEIR NIGHTMARES!!! JUST SEE INTO MY EYES, YOU'LL FIND WHERE MURDER LIES!!!!!!
  • Hell even Jason Newsted got in on it: "DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE YOU MOTHERFUCKER DIE!"
• Phil Anselmo, back in his prime, was very, ''very'' animated and hyperactive while performing, even for a metal musician, in addition to his frequent use of Metal Scream and his various interactions with the crowd.
  • THE TREND.... IS..... DEAAAAAAAAAD!!!!!!!
• Megadeth's Dave Mustaine is both this in his music and in real life. He is very fond of doing the hammy supervillain voice in his songs, examples include "Dawn Patrol", the spoken section in "Breakpoint", "Captive Honor" and "Prince Of Darkness", just to name a few. In other cases, he will often completely over-sing things, "Wake Up Dead" features him stretching his voice to breaking point. "Good Mourning...Black Friday" is probably the hammiest song he has ever done.
• David Draiman of Disturbed is known for his ability to move crowds with his hamminess. This can include dramatic speeches about empowerment, Giant Cow-milking and drawn-out screams. Observe.
  "My brothers, my sisters, my blood... SPEAK TO M-E-E-E-E!!".
  • What, no mention of "OOH! WAH-AH-AH-AH!"
• Rob Halford of Judas Priest. Not just for his bizarre leather outfits, but the fact that he used to arrive at Judas Priest concerts driving a motorcycle on stage. Seriously.
  • Still does for encores, in fact. At least up until their apparent last world tour in 2011.
• Ozzy Osbourne. Behold.
• Former Kamelot vocalist Roy Khan has some hammy tendencies thanks to his theatric performing style and odd mannerisms.
  • His replacement, Tommy Karevik, is no slouch in this department either. And with his other band, Seventh Wonder, Tommy gets even hammier, going into some insane R&B-esque runs contrasting the more gothic style he uses with Kamelot.
• Nightwish is completely over-the-top, with Heavy Mithril lyrics, Epic Rocking, and a truly passionate opera-trained female vocalist.
• Venom's Cronos, at least when it comes to stage banter. Enough so that a bootleg consisting entirely of his banter during one somewhat unlikely set opening for Black Flag became something of a cult phenomenon for its quotability and sheer over the top narm ("You know what this is? This comes from where Venom come from, it's called Newcastle Brown Ale! IT KNOCKS YOU ON YOUR FUCKIN' BACK, LET ME TELL YOU!!!").
• Tom Araya, most notably in the stages of the earlier albums.
  • RAINING BLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!
  • WARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!
• King Diamond: GRANDMA WHAT WAS IT LIIIIIIKE?!? TO BE ON THE HOLIDAY SIIIIIITE?!?
• Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails could get pretty hammy.
• Marilyn Manson fits the bill nicely. Given he follows the footsteps of two artists listed above (Alice Cooper and David Bowie) and adds some weird imagery to boot...
  HEY YOU, ARE YOU TRYING TO BE MEAN? YOU LIVE WITH APES MAN, IT'S HARD TO BE CLEAN!
• Rammstein definitely qualifies, with their firestarting, firework-setting, and gimp-humping performances.
  • Their lead singer alone is one of the hammiest hams to ever ham (on-stage, anyway). He's a big, scary German guy whose signature move is crouching down and pounding on his thighs with his fists, a move that has been dubbed the 'Till-Hammer'.
• Hansi Kürsch. The majority of his lyrics might just as well be written in all caps, and it seems that the older he gets, the hammier and livelier his stage persona becomes.
  WHEEEEEEEELLLLLL OOOOOOOF TIIIIIIIIIME!!!
  SAVE US ALL, FIIIIIIND THE WAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY!
• Dream Theater 's James LaBrie, mostly on the Count of Tuscany track. He's singing about an experience John Petrucci had as a kid, and he's screaming it like it's the scariest fucking thing in the world:
  COME AND HAVE A TASTE!!!
  A RARE VINTAGE!!!
  ALL THE FINEST WINES!!!
  IMPROVE WITH AGE!!!
  LET ME INTRODUCE!!!
  MY BROTHER!!!
  A BEARDED GENTLEMAN!!!
  HISTORIAN!!!
  • The whole band is pretty hammy. It makes sense when you consider Progressive Metal is basically the musical equivalent of this trope and Dream Theater are the genre's Trope Codifiers.
• Serj Tankian of System of a Down. Watch his live shows. He dances, throws out random vocalizations, and just generally messes around. Much of the tomfoolery stems from a desire to make the taciturn drummer, John, laugh onstage and get off rhythm.
  • Probably best exemplified by the song "Vicinity of Obscenity".
  • Some of it even bleeds over to co-vocalist Daron Malakian. Just listen to Cigaro or Old School Hollywood off of Mezmerize and you should get the idea.
• Oli Sykes of Bring Me the Horizon, even with the more seriousness of their later work, cannot stop being ham.
  • I KNOW A PLACE WHERE WE CAN GET AWAY FROM ALL OF THIS!
  • HOLD ME CLOSE! DON'T LET GO! WATCH ME BBBUUUURRRNN
• Atilla Csihar of Mayhem is perhaps the most notorious example of this among Black Metal vocalists. His unorthodox amalgamation of guttural growls and operatic wailing is known for its theatrical qualities as well as being, well, highly emphatic. Csihar's works for other bands like Aborym and Sunn O))) can, if anything, get even hammier. Maniac, another of Mayhem's vocalists, can also get spectacularly hammy, particularly on Grand Declaration of War. "WATCH THE TWILIGHT OF YOUR GOD AS YOUR SYSTEM CRACKS, AND ALL YOUR LIFE IS DEAD, PRIEST!"
• Reverend Bizarre's Albert Witchfinder definitely qualifies. Daniel Nyman, who performs the guest speech on the single version of "Slave of Satan", is even more so.
• Helloween's Andi Deris is a huge ham in studio, but live he just becomes the whole Christmas dinner. He mimics EVERY!SINGLE!WORD!. Songs like Back Against the Wall are just hilarious.
• Sir Russell Allen Not to mention his air-guitaring and 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 titular character of the Devin Townsend album Ziltoid the Omniscient definitely counts as one, delivering almost all his lines in an overly grandiose manner. Such gems include "You have not convinced mighty Ziltoid!! I am so omniscient, if there was to be two omnisciences, I would be both! Prepaaare yourseeelves for the subjugation!!" and "Fetid!! How dare they present this to me?! Foul! They hide their finest bean! Prepare the attack!!"
  • "They must have jumped into Hyperdrive! FOOEY! ...Indeed-dah! FOOEY!"
• Pain of Salvation's Daniel Gildenlow does this quite a lot, but when he plays the character of Mr. Money in the BE live stage show, he takes it into overdrive.
• Marmozets. "Move shake, move shake and hide! ALRIGHT!". Becca gets especially hammy in their live shows.
• Gloryhammer practically lives this trope. Of note are the songs The unicorn invasion of Dundee and Rise Of The Chaos Wizards.
• Saint Vitus' original vocalist Scott Reagers is one of the largest hams Doom Metal has ever seen.
  • NEPTUNE PLEASE HELP MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! I DON'T WANT NO BURIAL AT SEEEEEEAAAAAA!
  • WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR IIIIIIIIS OUR DESTINYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!
  • AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISEEEEEEEEE! ZOMBIEEEEEEEE!
• Bal-Sagoth seem not to be humans, but rather antropomorphic slabs of pure, unadulterated HAM. And they were ancient when your ancestors were NAUGHT but protoplasmic slime!
• Julian Cope of The Teardrop Explodes provides a spectacularly hammy performance for Sunn O)))'s "My Wall". "Bathory Erzsébet" by the same band also contains an extremely hammy performance from Xasthur's Malefic, which was obtained through Enforced Method Acting, as Malefic is claustrophobic, and his vocal performance was recorded while he was in a coffin. Another Sunn O))) collaborator deserving mention here is Runhild Gammelsæter, one of the finest Norwegian hams of all time; she has not only provided performances for some of Sunn O)))'s tracks but was also the vocalist for O'Malley and Anderson's earlier band, Thorr's Hammer.
• Quorthon of Bathory also deserves mention, particularly when he started recording Viking metal. Songs like "One Rode to Asa Bay", "Shores in Flames", and "Twilight of the Gods" provide spectacular examples of this trope.
• GWAR, which is basically KISS, Alice Cooper, and Manowar thrown together in a meat grinder - with any traces of subtlety removed afterwards.
• Jonny Atma, creator of GaMetal, has a habit of getting extremely dramatic when he gets to solos.
• Frank Mullen of Suffocation is legendary for his lengthy (and exceedingly profane) stream-of-consciousness rants about a wide variety of topics that are made even funnier with his thick Noo Yawk accent.
• Andrew W.K.'s music alone is just pure pop-metal gusto by itself, and then you add the man's sheer enthusiasm and big, throaty Metal Scream. Put that together and you have Fun Personified... or should we say the Life of the Party?
• Adrienne Cowan of Seven Spires. Along with how carried away she gets performing, often going from singing to shrieking to growling, the thumbnail for both their videos showcases Adrienne◊ mugging◊ (see also: this promotional picture◊).
• Einar Solberg of Leprous. Here's a fun drinking game; go to the comments section for just about any song he appears on (but especially the songs off Pitfalls) and take a shot every time you see a comment containing "AAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaAAAAAaaaaaa" or any variation thereof in reference to Einar's singing. You will die. "The Sky is Red" is probably his Crowning Moment of Ham.
• Fuki (of Unlucky Morpheus and other bands) fulfills this trope in spades. Big voice with a broad vibrato? Check. Enough Cape Swishes to create a small tornado? Check. Milking the Giant Cow so much that it would give Japan a dairy surplus for decades to come? Check. She's practically a Gender Flipped version of Kamijo.

Hip-Hop

• Busta Rhymes.
• LIL JOOOOON!
• Ludacris.
• Kanye West and Jay-Z just went HAM!!!!!!
  • Parts of "Ni**as in Paris," with its emphasis on opulence and combination of West and Jay-Z, were almost guaranteed to be this.
  (from the live version) "So I ball so hard, motherfuckers wanna fine me-" "HAAAHH!"
  "She say, 'Ye, can we be married at the MAAAAALLL. I say girl, you need to crawl 'fore ya BAAAAAAALL. Come and meet me in the bathroom STAAAAALLL. And show me why you deserve to have it AAAAALLLL.
  "Got my niggas in Paris, and we goin' gorillas! HAAAHH!!!"
  "I'M DEFINITELY IN MY ZONE!"
• DMX has been doing ham!
• MC Hammer truly believed in "go big or go home." Big stage productions, extravagant outfits, and some seriously awesome dancing.
• All three Beastie Boys were constantly engaged in Ham-to-Ham Combat. The winners? Us, the audience.
• Eminem comes across as this from time to time.
  It's so insane 'cause when it's going good it's going great;
  I'm Superman with the wind in his back, she's Lois Lane!
  But when it's bad, it's awful, I feel so ashamed;
  I snap, "who's that dude," I don't even know his name...
• The infamous Trapped in the Closet by R. Kelly, ESPECIALLY when it comes up to the climatic discoveries on each part. He's being completely serious about this too!
• Vanilla Ice, to hilarious levels.
  • "EVERYBODY GO ICE ICE BABY! A LITTLE BIT LOUDER A LITTLE BIT LOUDER ICE ICE BABY!"
  • "Yo; drop that zero and get with the hero!"
  • "Go ninja go ninja go!"
• Sir Mix-A-Lot was a scenery-chewer, no question.
• Is Flavor Flav a large ham? YEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHH BOYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!
• Nobody holds a candle in hamminess towards Wyclef Jean. If you hear his performance of "Mista Mista" on The Score by The Fugees you realize Chewing the Scenery can be an art form in itself! Every line he sings gets more and more ridiculous to the point that he sounds like someone with severe brain damage!
• Biz Markie, especially in his music videos. "AW BEBEH YOOOUUUU, GOT WHAT AH NEEEEEED..."
• Parts of Kurtis Blow's "The Breaks." "THESE! ARE! THE BREEEAAAAAKS!"

Pop

• Michael Jackson was possibly the biggest ham in the universe. Just the showmanship when he dances is incredible. And then you add his wacky Verbal Tics:
  Heeee hee!
  Shamone!
  • This went all the way back to the Jackson 5 days:
    JUST LOOK OVER YOUR SHOULDERS HONEY!!
• Of course, Michael's friendly rival, Prince, could keep with up with him any day of the week - that man could scream with the best of them. He was so damn showy in his stage presence and dancing that he didn't even have to raise his voice above a smooth falsetto to dazzle fans. But he often did anyway, because he's Prince.
• They don't call James Brown the Hardest Working Man In Show Business for nothing. The man wailed at the top of his lungs over some of the most relentless Funk grooves ever made. And of course, whose Verbal Tics do you think inspired Michael? These include (all at maximum volume):
  • "UH!"
  • "HHHHEYYYYYYYYY!"
  • "AAAAAAAW!"
  • "EEEEEEEEE-OOOOW!!
  • "OOOOOOOH-WOOOOOOOOOW!"
  • "Ain't it funky now?"
  • "Hit it!" Alternately, "Hit me!"
• When it comes to extravagant nuttiness in pop music, Lady Gaga is pretty hard to beat.
  • Which explains her choice of having her old friends from New York, Semi Precious Weapons as the opening act on her tour. Lead singer Justin Trantor is one of few people that can give her a run for her money in the Crazy Is Cool department.
• Elton John has had his moments, especially (and most appropriately as befitting the character in the song) in the promo clip for the 1978 single "Ego".
  • Elton in particular could get very hammy and animated in concert in the The '80s, especially during performances of "Bennie And The Jets" and "Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting)". It didn't hurt that this was at the height of Elton's cocaine and alcohol abuse, or that he was often performing to his biggest audiences since his heyday.
• A common fan sentiment during *NSYNC's heyday was that while Justin Timberlake was the Large Ham in their songs, Joey Fatone was the Large Ham during their public appearances.
  • More or less confirmed by the band themselves and Joey himself embraced this in his post-NSYNC career as a television presenter. When asked to describe Joey, the rest of the group simply said, "Ham."
• Christina Aguilera, especially during her Back To Basics era.
• Mariah Carey, anybody? She does every song in an over-the-top way that shouts "Where's my Grammy?"
  • Céline Dion too, a fierce competitor for the "who does the biggest Incredibly Long Note" category.^note though the late Whitney Houston probably beats both "You're heeeeeeere, there's nooooooothiiiiing I feeeeeeeaaaaar..." As a bonus, her appearance doing musical impressions, where eventually she's forced to stand up to perform with full bombast.
• Michael Bolton. Most blatant when it's Played for Laughs, such as in The Lonely Island's "Jack Sparrow".
• Tina Turner. Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome already has her hamming up as an actress, and then there's the theme song ("we don't need another heeeeroooo..."). When it comes to being loud, you can say Tina is SIMPLY THE BEST!
• Katy Perry. Especially after the Super Bowl performance where the scenery helped.
• Jennifer Hudson, good lord, Jennifer Hudson!
• Lots of old soul/blues singers dip into this on occasion, though it usually is genuine enough to keep from being overly hammy (see: Franklin, Aretha). Considering most '60s/'70s soul singers either started out or turned to singing gospel, it adds to their powerful performances.
• Ben Folds can be pretty hammy. See "Song for the Dumped" for a good example:
  "Slow it down some/And have some space...FUCK YOU TOO! GIMME MY MONEY BACK! GIMME MY MONEY BACK, YOU BITCH!...And dooon't forgeeeeeetttt...MY BLACK! T! SHIRT!"
• Tom Lonardo, of the early MTV hit Dog Police, is slightly hammy in the song "Dog Police" (where he never overcomes the weirdness of his surroundings), but a thick slice of phone-purchased ham in "1-800". And that's not counting other songs like "Hamburgers".
• All of Sha Na Na, but most especially Jon "Bowzer" Bauman, he of the booming bass voice and elastic face. He was already the hammiest of the bunch in live performances but his performances on their variety show take it up to eleven. Have a gander!
• Midge Ure, anybody? He sings each track in a theatrical fashion that just screams "This is SO dramatic!" "DANCING! WITH TEARS IN MYYYY EYES!" "AHHHHH, VIENNAAAAA!!" Naturally, this can be narm-y as hell to some listeners.

Classical

• Niccolo Paganini, the legendary Italian violinist, was a rock star for his age, and reportedly made of ham. He also went pretty far in making a rather interesting stage persona (deal with the devil, deadly pale and so on...). Some of the people that copied his shtick, like Norwegian superstar Ole Bull also count.
• Franz Liszt, a brilliant, unbeatable, and rather hammy piano man. (Play us a tune, you`re the piano ham...).
  • The nineteenth century saw the rise of the solo performers, many of whom excelled in hamminess.
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.^note even his name sounds hammy Just listen to the coda of "Rondo Alla Turca".
• Any director of a symphony orchestra has to be hammy. The price for directing hamminess goes, on good authority to Herbert von Karajan! Nobody did it better than him.
• Opera singers. Luciano Pavarotti, anyone?
• Stjepan Hauser of 2CELLOS. He's the one on the left if you couldn't tell.
• Georges Bizet. OH BIZET.
• Richard Wagner. His hamminess rules from beyond the grave; how can you not unleash the Giant Ham while performing his works?

Jazz

• Jelly Roll Morton was one of the greatest hams in early jazz, even bragging that he invented the whole musical style.
• Cab Calloway was perhaps the largest ham in the 1930s jazz scene.
• Coleman Hawkins.
• Miles Davis.
• Sarah Vaughan.
• Maynard Ferguson.
• And, of course: Duke Ellington (the name says it all).
• All Dixieland music sounds gloriously hammy nowadays.

Comedy

• I'm on a boat! I'm on a boat! Everybody look at me, 'cuz I'm sailin' on a boat!
  • LIKE A BOSS.
  • THIS IS THE TALE OF CAPTAIN JACK SPARROW
• 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 FUCKING LEEE!.
  "I do not neeeeeed \ A Microphone \ My voice is FUCKING POWERFUUUUULLLLL!"
  "What powers ya ask? \ I dunno, how about the power of flight? \ That do anything for ya? \ That's levitation, Holmes. \ How 'bout the power to kill a yak, from 200 yards away, with MIND BULLETS?! \ That's telekinesis, Kyle! \ How 'bout the power... to move you?
  He asked us, *snort* "Be you angels?" And we said "Nay! We are but MEN! ROCK! OOOOON!!!
  • Not to mention the song "Kickapoo", which is basically Ham-to-Ham Combat between Jack Black, Meat Loaf, and the late great Ronnie James Dio.
• "Weird Al" Yankovic has parodied this a few times. "I'M CALLIN' IN SICK TODAAAAAAY"
• Terry Gilliam in the Royal Albert Hall performance of "Not The Messiah (He's a Very Naughty Boy)", after the chorus sings "Yes, we are all individuals" strolls in bombastically (to a fanfare), opens his script dramatically and recites his one line, "I'm not!" then proceeds to laud himself while dramatically exiting the stage. It's hamtastic.
  • In fact, the two female singers in that oratorio exaggerate as much as possible, making already nonsensical songs utterly hilarious.

Other / Uncategorized

• Shirley Bassey's singing style is the musical equivalent of Chewing the Scenery.
• Ska as a whole is full of hamminess. In particular, you've got the happy hams of The English Beat.
• And in the same vein, may I present kd lang's performance of "Surrender" "TOMORROW NEVER DIIIIIIEEEEESS!"
• From 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.
• William Shatner, for a certain value of "music" and "singing". His classic stuff — most famously with his debut album, The Transformed Man — is straight-up So Bad, It's Good, but his more modern offerings, while still dripping with pork, actually.. sorta work, somehow.
• Jeanine Love, best known from the third C Block lineup, although the best example may be the song she recorded with Legends & Diamonds, "Hard & Cold".
• Miyuki Nakajima, at times when performing songs in her Yakai concerts.
• The infamous O Holy Crap.
• Pretty much every member of JAM Project. Masaaki Endoh and Hironobu Kageyama not only have lots of fun on stage, but pretty much compete with Ricardo Cruz to see who is the hammiest.
• 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!.
  AND HE STRIKES! LIKE THUN! DER! BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!
• Divine's I'm So Beautiful is simply hammy. CAN'T YOU SEE!? LOOK AT ME!!
• 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!"
• Hojotoho! They don't call it Wagnerian for nothing.
• A Cappella singing. Depending on the music and the song, a garnish of Ham can make the difference between a So Okay, It's Average performance and an awesome show.
• Voltaire. Listen to When You're Evil and Snakes for reference and prepare to be blown away...
  • And this is completely without mentioning potentially his hammiest song ever: "Riding a Black Unicorn." The chorus could have been written by Rhapsody of Fire for how much glorious OTT it has packed into it.
• In Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds, Phil Lynott eats pretty much anything which isn't nailed down as Parson Nathaniel ("A SIGN! I have been given a SIGN!") and is easily the biggest ham in the entire production. Which is quite impressive when you consider that one of the other cast members he's up against is Richard Burton. Richard Burton, people.
• "The Overtly Melancholic Lord Strange," singer of The Lamp of Thoth, is one of the largest hams around.
  WAY DOWN INSIDE! WOMAN! YOU NEED! LOOOOOOVE!!!
• David Thomas from Pere Ubu is what would have happened if BRIAN BLESSED was the frontman of a rock band. Just watch him here as he manages to steal the scene from Deborah Harry with his manic antics.
• The Spanish actor and singer Raphael. Who has been hamming it up for fifty years.
  ¡ES - CÁN - DA -LO, ES UN ESCÁNDALO! ES - CÁN - DA -LO, ES UN ESCÁNDALO!
  • Ever since at least The '60s and The '70s, some Spanish singers managed to ham it up even more (Come ON, they have the famous Serrano hams, why would they be less?) Raphael is one of the biggest examples, but Camilo Sesto was no slouch either. (Guess that becoming famous by playing Jesus in the Spanish version of Jesus Christ Super Star was a good start. Too bad his health problems have made him less hammy than he used to be.)
  ''VIVIIIIIIR ASI ES MORIIIIIIR DE AMOOOOOOOR! POR AMOR TENGO EL ALMA HERIIIIDAAAAAA! POR AMOR, NO QUIERO MAS VIDA QUE SU VIDA, MELANCOLIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
  • Isabel Pantoja. Just... Isabel Pantoja.
    • I see your Isabel Pantoja and raise you a Lola Flores!
  • Generally speaking, Flamenco singers are among the hammiest hams ever coming from Spain. Gypsy Kings? Oh yeah. Camaron de la Isla? You bet!
  • Rockers don't do it that bad either. Enrique Burnbury from Heroes del Silencio was (and it looks like he still is) an epic rock ham in Entre dos tierras - though let's be fair, with a voice like that, it couldn't be less.
• Bryan. Ferry. Can be understated even with that vibrato, but when he wants to be, like in If There Is Something, where he gets rather... enthusiastic and shouty about GROWING POTATOES, he is very hammy indeed.
• Drummer Bernard Purdie. "Weeeeeeell Well! Samba time baby!"
• Latin-American singers from The '60s, The '70s, and The '80s really loved to ham it up to absolutely epic levels, relying on lots of stage antics and upbeat music. Some of the most radical cases are: the (late) Mexican Juan Gabriel, the Venezuelan Jose Luis "EL Puma" Rodriguez, the Argentinian Jairo and the late King of Latin-American Singing Porks, the also Argentinian Roberto "Sandro" Sanchez alias "El Gitano".
• Tango singers are extremely hammy, as it befits a genre with songs about very passionate love affairs and extremely firey declarations about past, love, and Argentina. Roberto Goyeneche is a great example, though the legendary Carlos Gardel was no slouch on that either.
• Those who thought that the only good edible things coming from Belgium were chocolates, beer, fries, and waffles should think again since the absolutely magnificent and bombastic ham provided by Jacques Brel is so thick that it'll give anyone lots of chills. After his death.
• Many Italian singers from The '70s and The '80s were larger than life and as hammy as they could. Riccardo Cocciante, Humberto Tozzi (with epic dancing in the first one) and Franco Simone provide everyone with thick, delicious, tasty Italian pork that apparently still lasts to this day. (Simone has taken it down some notches, but Cocciante and Tozzi are still hammy now).
• Peter Schickele's narration for "Bach Portrait" does this as a parody of what Aaron Copland instructed narrators of his "Lincoln Portrait" not to do.
• Scott Walker once compared himself to Orson Welles, in the Bogdanovichian sense that he's become popular music's most acclaimed former musician, unable to bring his visions to life... so he already counts as a Large Ham. But when you hear that impossibly deep and booming voice set to his very, very symphonic arrangements and compositions, he reaches a truly breathtaking level of Ham.
• Captain Maggots of Emilie Autumn's Bloody Crumpets is incredibly, intentionally hammy. And the fans love her for it. Emilie also gets in on the fun sometimes, like in the "Girls! Girls! Girls!" live performance.
• A lot of the devil's lines in Chris De Burgh's 'Spanish Train' are pretty damn hammy.
• Jun Togawa's music alone gives away her hamminess but seeing her perform, especially in her earlier performances, she chews the scenery with all her might.
• Tom Lehrer can get to be this way when he affects a scholarly, Harvard-esque accent. Note his variations on "Clementine" on An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer (especially the Cole Porter and Gilbert and Sullivan variations).
• Hamilton has a spy on the inside: that's right, HERCULES MULLIGAN!!
  • "Hercules Mulligan! I need no introduction! You knock me down, I get the fuck back up again!
• Harry Partridge's songs can be this (especially the Skyrim songs):
  • "BACK! TO TAM-RI-E-HE-HE-HE-HEL!
  • "WITH ANIMATION YOU CAAAAAN..."
• Check out the backup singers in Rick James' "Super Freak" video.
• This live performance of Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," supposedly depicting the conversation that lets Marvin know his girl's been unfaithful as a segue into the song. Marvin's pretty understated, but the band member who lets him know? Hoo, boy...
  Caller: Somethin' funky is goin' down, man!
  Marvin: What do you mean, somethin' funky is goin' down?
  Caller: I just saw your lady go in a hotel room, man! With one of your best friends! It just didn't look right, Marvin! (Beat) Speak up, man! What you gonna say about it, man?!
• Norwegian Hardanger Fiddle performers. The more elaborate fiddle tunes seem to be made with a slice of ham, and to be fair, the ones who tend to win the national contests gain their points partly because of technical skills, and partly because of their ability to chew the scenery. Many brilliant fiddlers, all the way back to the 1850s, used their ham with skill, and a number of them was ham in more than one sense of the word.
• Did someone say EUROVISION??
  • Two examples already listed on this page have competed - enjoy Raphael and Umberto Tozzi, doing what they do best in 1966 and 1987, respectively. (Tozzi even has some solid air piano action going on).
  • 2000 had its ham in spades. Check out two of the top five entries, famous German TV entertainer Stefan Raab with "Wadde hadde dudde da?" and Latvia's Brainstorm with "My Star".
  • Raab was responsible for some ham he didn't personally deliver himself. In 1998, he wrote Germany's entry, "Guildo hat euch lieb!" (which he conducted), all about how singer Guildo Horn will cheer you up when you're down. The oddly dressed balding man proceeded to work the crowd, play handbells, and climb up the scaffolding as a big finish. There have been many Large Hams at Eurovision, but Guildo is still the one to beat.
  • Not uncommon for novelty entries - enjoy Israel's "Shir Habatlanim", all about how great it is to be lazy. And speaking of lazy, do these two remind you of anyone?
  • Plenty of winners are also no slouches in the ham department: check out Italy 1990, Russia 2008, Sweden 1984, and - most especially - metal band Lordi winning it for Finland in 2006.
• R&B singer Patti LaBelle is known for being over-the-top during her live performances and doing things such as falling on the floor and kicking her shoes off, for example.
• Kids Praise: It's clear there were real child voice actors in these Christian praise albums for kids, and they tended to overact in some of the earlier albums, especially when they're supposed to be excited about something.
• Loleatta Holloway's hammy singing on her records (for example, "Love Sensation") has made her a popular sampling choice for house/techno artists.
• Christmas With The Tabernacle Choir: Some guests just decide they want to have some fun and put on a show for all they're worth.
  • Bryn Terfel came with the flag of Wales sewn into the inside of his coat. After showing the audience, he turned to show the choir and orchestra.
  • Brian Stokes Mitchell half-acts out a lot of his songs, especially "The Friendly Beasts" where he sings with different voices for the different animals, even moving his jaw like a cow chewing its cud during that verse.
  • John Rhys-Davies really gets into his role as the Ghost of Christmas Present. Especially when they start flying. "Wheeee!"
  • Kristin Chenoweth hams her way through her entire concert, with a few instances where she's more serious. Otherwise she's posing dramatically as she sings, dancing around the set and bantering with Mack and the other performers.
  • During a sing-along in the 2017 concert, a shot focuses on a group of kids who start hamming it up when they see the camera on them.

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