Thread: Hamming it up

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

P.S. Also, there is sometimes a lot of "conceptual overlap" between hammy and campy. They're not exact synonyms, but quite often both words can be applied to the same performer/performance. And kitschy fits into roughly the same "conceptual space" -- though, again, it's not an exact synonym with the other two:

Example: Faye Dunaway playing Joan Crawford in 1981's Mommie Dearest is "equal parts ham and camp", but I'm not sure if anyone would describe it as "kitsch":

That movie reminds me too much of my mother