Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. epitomizing brief sexual intercourse intended on the whole for male satisfaction only; similarly used in homosexual context (see cit. 2003).

[1940		Paul Whiteman [instrumental title] Wham, wham, re, bop, boom, bam].
1942		joke cited in G. Legman Rationale of the Dirty Joke (1972) I 199: A little rabbit whose method with his girlfriends is ‘Wham bam, thank you, Mam.’.
1957		M. Shulman Rally Round the Flag, Boys! (1959) 89: [W]hat was your plot – to hop in bed with me, hop right out again, and get home before Grace does? Wham, bam, thank you ma’am?
1960		(con. 1930s) R. Barber Night They Raided Minsky’s (1968) 200: He ain’t no wham-bam stage-door johnny. He wants to marry you!
1963		G. Lambert Inside Daisy Clover (1966) 111: ‘Ram, bam, thank you ma’am,’ I said.
1968		T. Conway [bk title] The Wham! Bam! Thank You, Ma’am Affair.
1970		J. Bouton Ball Four 218: Baseball players are not, by and large, the best dates. We prefer wham, bam, thank-you-mam affairs.
1973		D. Williamson What If You Died Tomorrow (1977) I i: The wham-wham-wham stuff only lasted nine months.
1974		J. Lahr Hot to Trot 120: I’d never go to a whore. Slam-bam-thank-you-ma’am.
1985		K. Vacha Quiet Fire 67: Usually it’s wham, bam, thank you ma’am, which we feel is wrong.
1993		K. Lette Foetal Attraction (1994) 59: ‘No net-play. Just wham-bam, thank you, ma’am.’ The other women at the table tittered in agreement.
1994		N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 401: It was supposed to be a quick hit-and-forget, a slam-bam-thank-you-ma’am.
1998		G. Burn Happy Like Murderers 87: It was gangbang, thank you ma’am, and that was that story finished. [Ibid.] 345: He climaxed very quickly. He was very whambam.
2000		Indep. Rev. 2 June 1: She brought feminism into the bedroom, dealing a huge blow to the wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am culture.
2003		G. Tate Midnight Lightning 54: The relationships he had with women were not just of the whambam variety.

2. anything, in a non-sexual sense, that has to be done quickly and perfunctorily.

1948		Heggen & Logan Mister Roberts Ii i: Well, there goes the liberty. That was sure a wham-bam-thank you ma’am!
1969		N. Cohn Awopbop. (1970) 91: Everything was impetus. Murray the K, wham bam thankyou mam.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 75: This had to be wham-bam-thank-you-Ma’am because I had to get back to New York.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 109: They caught the guys wham, blam, thank you ma’am.
2000		P. Howard Miseducation of Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (2004) 12: We’re talking Wham, Bam, that’s for the old dear’s waterford Crystal limited edition votive, Ma’am.
2011		J. MacArthur ‘Jack Rabbit Slim’s Cellar’ in Pulp Ink [ebook] Gotta hand it to you [...] Wham. Bam. And thank you, ma’am.

3. attrib. use of sense 2.

1971		L. Bangs in Psychotic Reactions (1988) 55: The MC5 might have put you ‘flat on your back’ with ‘nipple stiffeners’ and ‘wham, bam, thank you ma’am’ jams.
1999		Indep. Information 16–22 Oct. 57: Wolfgang Petersen’s wham-bam-thank-you-mam thriller.
2002		posting at www.devhood.com 29 Jan. 🌐 People who go through wham-bam-thankyou-ma’am programs that teach them how to ‘use’ said languages do gain valuable experience in developing larger-scale applications than the ‘Hello, World’ variety.

4. thank you, usu. cynical.

1963

G. Lambert Inside Daisy Clover (1966) 111: ‘Ram, bam, thank you ma’am,’ I said.