FAT HAM made me laugh and cry as an experienced play viewer. Hamlet: “I’m an empath!”, “I Pounder!”

Added: 2026-05-16

[00:00:00]So, in Hamlet, Hamlet is responsible for eight deaths, including his own, and Fat Ham, not so much.

[00:00:09]Uh Fat Ham is essentially uh what if Hamlet was a therapy kid. It's so funny. The joke is that he's or not the joke, but they say the twist is that he's supposed to be black and adolescent and queer.

[00:00:25]Uh but none of those things really What really makes the whole thing funny, right, is that the dad comes back and the dad is like reminds me of the Vietnam Marine who is affectionately nicknamed the dog, who appeared in Time magazine with a bunch of uh human ears as human trophies. My dad served with them and uh So, it's like the dog comes back and he asks the son, he goes, "You got to avenge me, boy." And the son is uh overweight, queer, but none of that really matters. What it is is that he's a [ __ ] regardless of orientation or color, and uh he's a therapy kid. He's like, "Oh, dad.

[00:01:09]Oh, I don't know. I don't know about avenging you.

[00:01:14]He's just a total [ __ ] [ __ ] about it.

[00:01:19]But yeah, it is a very very good play, dude. It's pretty funny.

[00:01:24]Yeah, it's just like what if Hamlet was a modern [ __ ] The whole black-white thing, I mean, that's just like for cultural references, but the joke and the shift in the character doesn't really have to do anything at all with his race.

[00:01:37]What they change about him isn't race. They change or the stakes, really, although they're lowered considerably.

[00:01:47]But the real change with the play is they just make him like a modern therapy kid [ __ ] >> [laughter] >> He's like, But Dad just because you were murdered like I'm just going to like uh work through that and uh yeah.

[00:02:07]You weren't really the best dad, so I don't think I'm going to avenge you.

[00:02:11]Like wait, what?

[00:02:15]It's pretty funny.