ham vs lay an egg

ham

verb
  • To overact; to act with exaggerated emotions. 

noun
  • An amateur radio operator. 

  • A thigh and buttock of an animal slaughtered for meat. 

  • Electronic mail that is wanted; mail that is not spam or junk mail. 

  • An overacting or amateurish performer; an actor with an especially showy or exaggerated style. 

  • The region back of the knee joint; the popliteal space; the hock. 

  • The back of the thigh. 

  • Meat from the thigh of a hog cured for food. 

lay an egg

verb
  • To produce a failure or flop; to do something which is unsuccessful. 

  • To produce an egg. 

How often have the words ham and lay an egg occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )