Spanky Ham

Drawn Together character


name=Spanky Ham
gender=Male
race=Pig
hair=none
age=31
job=Internet-based entertainer
sexuality=Heterosexual
religion=Muslim
voice actor=Adam Carolla

Spanky Ham is a fictional character in the animated series "Drawn Together". Adam Carolla voices Spanky.

Conception and development

The creators based Spanky's personality on David "Puck" Rainey from "". [cite web|url=http://tv.ign.com/articles/746/746056p1.html|title="Drawn Together"'s creators face reality|work=IGN.com|accessdate=2006-11-27]

Background

Spanky is a horny pig with few social skills. The premise for his character is that he has been directly downloaded from the Internet, and as such, he is a parody of the immature characters found in low-quality Internet Flash cartoons. He does not parody any specific animated character. Spanky's status as an Internet download comes directly into play in the episode "Foxxy vs. the Board of Education", when he is infected with a computer virus which is curable through regular medicine. In his "life" away from the show, Spanky is an animated barker who inhabits an Internet porn site, introducing the viewer to the various wares available. In the past, he served as a special education instructor for an unspecified length of time. He has also had a liver transplant; in "Dirty Pranking No. 2", Princess Clara says that a liver from a dead teacher gave him a second chance. In "Spelling Applebee's" he reveals that he lost his left testicle to cancer. The episode "Xandir and Tim, Sitting in a Tree" reveals that he has a wife and son who live in a house in the suburbs. That same episode reveals that he was also a high school dropout.

He may have been molested as a child; when Wooldoor Sockbat sang Princess Clara's "Bully Song", with the lyrics "Bullies are people who hate themselves/Abused at age six, or molested at 12", Spanky gasped and asked "Who told you?" In "Terms of Endearment", he lists the "playful advances" of one's shop teacher as an example of something that should not be forgotten; given his previous admission, it is possible Spanky is speaking from experience. He is also the only character whose parents have not yet been revealed on the show, though his grandma was shown in one episode (Charlotte's Web Of Lies) .

Personality

Spanky's primary gag is his crudeness. He takes great pleasure in his own bodily functions, and is frequently seen looking at pornography. When he overtans himself, he resembles bacon. A first season episode reveals that Spanky is a Muslim (which, in addition to serving as the punchline to a 9/11 joke in that episode - he mentions "inconveniently" converting in August 2001 - is an in-joke itself, as Islam considers pigs to be especially unclean creatures that are to be avoided). In "Breakfast Food Killer", Spanky implies that he was Jewish prior to his conversion when he chides Franken Berry for changing his name from Frankenstein, then notes, "Assimilation is our people's biggest enemy." Judaism also considers pigs to be unclean creatures to be avoided (hence in both religions, pork is forbidden from being eaten). His catchphrase is, "Nothing can "possibly" go wrong!", which he always utters right before disaster strikes.

He is greedy and sleazy, and always eager to exploit the other characters for his personal gain. He is crudely animated and appears to be somewhat visually based on the "South Park" and killfrog.com characters. He also sometimes serves as a parody of porn star Ron Jeremy, who was featured in the reality show "The Surreal Life", complete with a gigantic penis (uncensored only on the DVD, where it is revealed to be coiled like a biological pig's). Though as with all the other housemates, there have been gags suggesting same-sex relationships on Spanky's part (particularly an instance where he plays "spin the bottle" with Captain Hero and Wooldoor), Spanky is predominantly straight. He is attracted to Princess Clara, and at the end of Season One, he even became involved with her; though the couple were not shown breaking up on screen, their relationship was never mentioned again, and it becomes apparent in Season Two that it is no longer current. In "Foxxy vs. the Board of Education", Spanky enters into a gay marriage with Xandir for free health insurance, but is unable to force himself to have sex with Xandir, which nearly prevents him from getting the insurance. He appears to have a sexual relationship with Captain Hero in "Mexican't Buy Me Love"; in that episode, Foxxy implies that Hero had fingered Spanky, and he also mentions that he had allowed Hero to go to "seventh base" with him. However, Spanky is not really acting in his own persona in this regard; the story in question is basically an extended role-playing exercise, in which the housemates assume the roles of high school clique members. He also seems to be a dacryphiliac; he gets an erection when he sees Clara crying in the first episode, and in "Captain Girl", he says that he will have an orgasm if Wooldoor continues crying.

A third-season episode briefly revisited Spanky's original, darker side, revealing a more malicious aspect to the character than was ever hinted at before, as it was revealed that Spanky regularly impregnates his wife and then kills the children at birth in order to process them into sausage and sell them for profit. However, this, like many other events that occur in the series, is most likely just a gag rather than actual series canon.

A running gag on the show involves Spanky interjecting a random nonsensical comment of some sort during situations where several of the housemates are talking at once. In "Requiem for a Reality Show" he says "Bukkake?" during one such scene, and in both "N.R.A.y RAY" and "Lost in Parking Space, Part One", he is heard to say, "My girlfriend has cerebral palsy!"

Role on the show

During the first few episodes of the series, Spanky was the villain of the show, committing such horrible deeds as making a slave out of Ling-Ling in "Gay Bash", and forcing Wooldoor to trick Clara into singing in "Requiem for a Reality Show" so he could kill and eat all the woodland creatures that inexplicably appeared whenever she did so. However, this role would be altered toward the end of the first season. After bonding with Clara in "Dirty Pranking No. 2", Spanky becomes much more sympathetic; though he continues to bully Wooldoor and make fun of Xandir, his behavior in this regard is more mischievous than malicious.

Though Spanky is seldom the focal point of a story, he doesn't hurt for screen time. Sometimes, he remains in the background and wryly comments or jokes about the situation, but often, he provides a valuable supporting role in stories and scenes. Despite his lewd, crass nature, he is actually one of the group's most reliable members, always willing to come to the aid of the other houseguests when one of them faces a crisis of some sort. At times, he displays surprising sensitivity; in addition to having taught special ed classes (about which he makes a special point to tell the housemates that "those kids try hard"), he regularly attends the Special Olympics, and is sensitive to the plight of Native Americans. He has also served as the voice of reason on a few occasions, such as when he gave advice to Foxxy Love in "Captain Hero's Marriage Pact" or came to Clara's defense in "Clum Babies". In "Terms of Endearment", he makes a moving speech to Mickey Mouse that people shouldn't try to erase offensive stereotypes, because while they are a not particularly pleasant part of history, denying history is dangerous. In "Xandir and Tim, Sitting in a Tree", Spanky is the one who rallies the housemates after they receive a bad review from "Entertainment Weekly", and he also delivers the episode's lesson about the nature of criticism.

References