hamming
Playing it big
Hamming is exaggerated, theatrical acting—overplaying a role for effect.
The term comes from ham, slang for an actor who overacts.
Someone hamming it up mugs for the camera or plays to the audience with broad gestures and expressions: He was hamming it up for the kids, pretending to be a monster.
The word implies performance that's deliberately or cluelessly over the top.
Excessive theatrical performance
- exaggerationOverstating beyond reality
- melodramaSensational, emotionally overwrought drama
- muggingRobbery with violence
- scenery-chewingTheatrical overperformance
theatrical · campy · over-the-top · emoting · histrionics · showboating · amateurish · grandstanding
overacting
Excessive theatrical performance
- exaggerationOverstating beyond reality
- melodramaSensational, emotionally overwrought drama
- muggingRobbery with violence
scenery-chewing · theatrical · campy · over-the-top · emoting · histrionics · showboating · amateurish · grandstanding · clowning
parity
State of being equal
decoder · checksum · binary · algorithm · codeword · information theory · weight
- humorjoke, jokes, joking, comedy, comic
- stage comedyslapstick, pratfalls, sketches, skits, vaudeville
- theatricstheatrics, dramatics, melodrama, histrionics, theatricality
- showboatingshowing off, bragging, boasting, grandstanding, posturing
- Performance Stylesmethod acting, classical acting, comedic acting, physical theater, screen acting
- scene stealingmugging, upstaging, grandstanding, showboating, overacting
hammingunderacting
Performing with insufficient intensity
underplaying · understating · subtlety · restraint · minimalism
hammingmodesty
Absence of vanity
self-effacement · reserve · restraint · understatement · subtlety
hammingsincerity
Honest, unfeigned genuineness
genuineness · authenticity · naturalness · unaffectedness · artlessness
- hamming upExaggerating for effect