Trope Workshop:I'm Here All Week

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Thank you, thank you. I'm here all week. Try the veal, and don't forget to tip your waiter.

A Stock Phrase and Stock Shtick for lightly acknowledging the appreciation/awe/surprise of onlookers -- or lack of same -- when a character does something unusual, unexpected or just plain cool.

I'm Here All Week and its variants originated as a stock acknowledgment of audience appreciation (or, just as often, absence thereof) by stand-up comedians, lounge singers and other performers in Borscht Belt hotels during the first half of the 20th Century. These resorts provided both entertainment and food for their guests around the clock. The performers at these establishments were booked by the week or even the month, hence the implicit "If you liked my performance, you can come back for more". The encouragement to "try the veal" derives from the frequent request by a venue's management that the performer push that week's in-house specials (or just the dishes which made the most profit).

See also Ladies and Germs.

Examples of I'm Here All Week include:

Advertising

• In 1999 Beck's Beer ran several versions of a commercial called "Comedy" in which a painfully unfunny comedian with a strong German accent tells stereotypically bad jokes in a nearly empty club. He ends his act with "Zank you. I'll be here all ze veek." (And the actual punchline to the commercial is "Germans don't do comedy, they do beer.")

Fan Works

• When Doug Sangnoir gymnastically travels down the main staircase of Hogwarts in Drunkard's Walk VIII: Harry Potter and the Man from Otherearth, he responds to the applauding paintings with, "Thank you, thank you, I'm here until June. Try the veal, and don't forget to tip your artist."
• In Harry Potter and the Four Heirs by "Sinyk", Hermione attempts to prank Harry by setting his arrival in the Great Hall for breakfast one morning to "Bad to the Bone" by George Thorogood and the Destroyers. After he turns the prank around on her by playing into it, he turns to the rest of the students and declares, "Thank you, thank you, I'm here all year!"

Film

• Shrek: After taking out a squad of soldiers in the arena in Dulac, Shrek says to the cheering crowd, "Thank you! Thank you very much! I'm here 'til Thursday! Try the veal!"
• Paul Bettany as Chaucer in A Knight's Tale, after introducing Sir Ulrich von Lichtenstein at a tournament to another cheering crowd, ends with "Thank you, I'll be here all week!"
• The Blues Brothers: Murph and the Magictones ended a set in the Holiday Inn's nearly-empty Armada Room with "I'm here all week, try the pepper steak."

Literature

• In the course of Ten on Sunday: The Secret Life of Men, a memoir by Alan Eisenstock which revolves around friendly driveway basketball games between neighbors in Santa Monica, California, there's this exchange:

"Ladies and gentlemen, Dr. Phil. He's here all week," I say. "Try the veal," Phil says.

• Then there's this moment in the 2006 novel Killer Instinct by Joseph Finder:

I pantomimed a Borscht Belt rimshot in the air. "Thank you, you're a wonderful audience, I'm here all week," I said. "Try the veal chop, it's great."

Music

• Acknowledging the trope, the jazz/funk group TRi/O (not to be confused with the Colombian pop trio "Tri-O") named their 2020 album Try the Veal.

New Media

• Posters on the Straight Dope message boards frequently use variations to punctuate bad one-liners and other jokes
• Tenor.com has a page full of memes based around the phrase.

Recorded and Stand Up Comedy

• Tim Allen is credited with reviving the line after it had all but vanished from common memory when he used it after one of his comedy bits bombed while co-hosting the 1992 Emmy Awards: "Try the veal, I'll be here all week."

Theatre

• In the 1996 play Pieces of the Sky by David L. Paterson, the character Joshua says at one point

JOSHUA: I’m not good at delivery - and yet they make me a mailman! Ba-doom-bump. Thank you -- I’ll be here all week -- try the brisket.

Web Original

• The trope provides the title for the July 24, 2008 installment of the "Quote Machine" column on New York Magazine‍'‍s online site, Vulture.com, Joss Whedon Will Be Here All Week. Try the Veal. It references an awful pun by Whedon that leads off the column, about an inversion of the Jump the Shark trope.