Ham was mentioned at the end of the movie Race to Space, a fictionalized story of the first chimp in space.
Ham is mentioned in Grant Morrison's The Filth, where he is derided as "Handsome Ham, the John Glenn of the apes" by the Soviet chimp-assassin Dmitri-9. Later, he appears in a hallucination, congratulating Dmitri-9 for his accomplishments just before the assassin is hit by a train.
Ham is discussed in the first series of The Ricky Gervais Show Podcast.
He is referenced as the grandfather of protagonist Ham III in the upcoming movie Space Chimps and being the sole reason he is picked for the mission in the first place.
In 2008, Bark Hide & Horn, a folk-rock band from Portland, Oregon, released a song titled, "Ham the Astrochimp," detailing the journey of Ham from his perspective.