Jack Stauber is a weirdo. I mean that in the best way possible, obviously. If you’ve spent any time in the corner of the internet where VHS aesthetics and unsettling animations thrive, you know his work feels like a fever dream from 1994. But even in his massive catalog of "Micropop" hits, Ballad of Hamantha lyrics stand out as something uniquely devastating. It’s not just a song about a girl with a ham for a head. It’s a gut-punch about fame, tragedy, and the way society consumes "different" people until there’s literally nothing left but a grease stain on an operating table.
You’ve probably seen the claymation. Hamantha has that one big, blinking eye and a slab of ham where her face should be. It’s goofy until you actually listen.
The Brutal Plot Behind Ballad of Hamantha Lyrics
The story is a tragedy in three acts, and it’s surprisingly linear for a Stauber track. We start with Hamantha’s birth. She has a "rare and sad disease"—she grew a ham where her head should be. Despite the meaty appendage, she’s described as a "cutie pie" with "flowing hair" and a "lovely eye." She wants to be a star. That’s her dream. But she isn't "going far" because, well, she has a ham for a head.
Then comes the "accidental" part of the story. Her dad is out in the yard, frustrated and "cursing God." He fires a gun at the sky. At that exact moment, Hamantha gets a call from a doctor who says he’s found a cure. She’s ecstatic. She’s finally going to be "normal."
She bursts out the door, beaming with happy tears, but that stray bullet her dad shot into the clouds? It comes back down. It "aimlessly nested inside her."
The Operating Room Horror
This is where the Ballad of Hamantha lyrics take a turn from "sad indie song" to "existential nightmare." She’s on the operating table, and she dies. The doctor, in a moment of either pure incompetence or chilling callousness, leaves a "lunch" on the table for the bereaved.
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It’s a cooked ham.
The nurse is confused. "Which one is the ham that—?" she asks. The doctor doesn't care; he's on break. The song then drops the hammer: "At her time of death, the doc said, 'Time to eat!' So we took a bite out of her face meat."
It’s gruesome. It’s literal. And it’s a massive metaphor for how we treat "freaks" or celebrities. We watch them, we pity them, and then we consume them.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Meaning
A lot of fans think this is just Jack Stauber being random. "Haha, ham head." But look closer at the recurring lines: "Hamantha, Hamantha / So greedy we wanted more."
Who is "we"?
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It’s us. The audience. The people watching the "star." Hamantha wanted to be famous, and in death, she finally became one. The lyrics say, "Hamantha had become a star / Hamantha was finally a star." She’s soaring through space, looking back at Earth. She got her wish, but only because her death was "news" that spread "near and far."
She became a star not for her talent, but for the spectacle of her tragedy.
Body Dysmorphia and "The Cure"
There’s a heavy layer of commentary here on body image. Hamantha was "kind to some" and had a "lovely eye," but she couldn't see her own beauty because of the "disease." She was desperate for the cure.
The doctor claiming he had a "cure" right when things were looking up feels like a critique of the medical industry or even plastic surgery. The idea that you have to "fix" yourself to be happy. She was "finally freed from her pain" only by dying.
Honestly, it’s some of the darkest writing in modern indie pop.
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The Production: VHS Glitch and Melancholy
The music itself is a trick. It starts with this upbeat, almost jaunty synth line. It feels like a children’s show theme song. But as the story gets darker, the audio starts to warp.
Stauber uses a lot of analog gear—broken VCRs, old casio keyboards—to get that "found footage" sound. It makes the Ballad of Hamantha lyrics feel like a lost tape you weren't supposed to find. By the time the soul-soaring finale hits, the music is huge and cinematic, mirroring Hamantha’s transition from a "meaty face" girl on a sidewalk to a literal celestial body.
Why This Song Blew Up on TikTok and Beyond
You’d think a song about eating a girl’s face would be a hard sell. But it went viral for a reason.
- The Contrast: The mix of cute and horrifying is "internet gold."
- The Relatability: Anyone who has felt "impossible to ignore" for the wrong reasons connects with Hamantha.
- The Ambiguity: Is the doctor evil? Did the dad mean to hit her? (Probably not, but the negligence is the point).
If you’re looking to dive deeper into this kind of storytelling, you’ve gotta check out Stauber’s short film OPAL. It carries many of the same themes—neglect, distorted self-image, and the "glamour" of tragedy—but cranks the intensity up to eleven.
To really understand the impact of the Ballad of Hamantha lyrics, you have to stop looking at her as a cartoon. She’s a stand-in for anyone whose "dream" was hijacked by a world that would rather eat them than help them.
Pay attention to the background vocals in the final chorus. They aren't just singing her name; they’re mourning a girl who was only loved once she became a headline.
Read the lyrics while watching the music video on Jack Stauber’s YouTube channel. Compare the "star" ending to the "face meat" verse and notice how the musical key changes to make you feel "victorious" even though the situation is objectively horrific.