View source for What's an X Like You Doing In a Y Like This?

{{trope}}
When a character (usually female) is captured by the [[Big Bad]] or seen in a suspicious place by other characters. Also used as a (bad) pickup line.

The traditional wording is "What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?"
{{examples|Examples:}}

== [[Film]] - Live Action ==
* ''[[George of the Jungle (Film)|George of the Jungle]]'' has Ape's book on "human courtship rituals" (''Coffee, Tea or Me'', a real-life book about two lusty young fictional stewardesses) offer this pickup line: "What's a nice girl like you doing in a plane like this?"
* A short by [[Martin Scorsese]] is titled "What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?"
* Evie from ''[[The Mummy 1999 (Film)|The Mummy 1999]]'' gets the line mixed up while drunk. "I know what you're thinking. What is a place like me doing in a girl like this?" Rick responds, "Something like that."
* ''[[Following]]'': 
{{quote| '''The young man:''' So what's a nice girl like you-<br />
'''The blonde:''' Doing in a place like this?<br />
'''The young man:''' -doing with a bald old cunt like that? }}

== [[Film]] - Animation ==
* In ''[[Finding Nemo]]'', Bruce the shark asks Dory and Marlin, "What's a couple of bites like you doing in a zone like this?"
* [[Hanna-Barbera]]'s animated musical version of ''[[Alice in Wonderland]]'', produced in 1966, was subtitled ''What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This?'' (which was also the title of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyFSHggHZME one of the songs]).
* In Disney's ''[[Home On the Range]]'':
{{quote| '''Bull #1:''' What are a couple of ladies like you...<br />
'''Bull #2:''' Doing on a drive like this? }}

== [[Literature]] ==
* Inverted in the [[Robert A. Heinlein]] novel ''[[The Number of the Beast]]'', when a dissection of a dead female alien who had been posing as a male human leads to the discovery that her legs each had two knees, one bending forward and one bending backwards. Cue the quip, "What's a nice joint like you doing in a girl like this?"

== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* In the ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' story "[[Doctor Who (TV)/Recap/S5 E5 The Web of Fear|The Web of Fear]]", someone asks a female scientist "What's a girl like you doing in a job like this?". She's not impressed.
* In ''[[The Pretender]]'' episode ''A Stand-Up Guy'', Jarod strikes up a conversation with a woman whose restaurant has become a gang hangout, and asks her in a joking tone what a nice girl like her is doing in a place like this.
* In the ''[[Star Trek the Next Generation]]'' first-season episode "11001001", said by Riker to a hologram: "What's a knockout brunette like you doing in a computer-generated gin joint like this?"

== Magazines ==
* Parodied in "Movie Dialogue We'd Like To Hear" from ''[[Mad Magazine]]'':
{{quote| "Ever since I came in here tonight, somethin's been puzzlin' me... what's a crummy girl like you doin' in a nice place like this?"}}

== [[Music]] ==
* [[Bob Dylan]]: "What's a sweetheart like you doing in a dump like this?"
* The Spanish band Burning references the line in the song "¿Qué Hace Una Chica Como Tú En Un Lugar Como Éste?"
* [[Frank Zappa]] ''loved'' this line and used it in at least five different songs.
* John Schneider's "What's A Memory Like You(Doing In A Love Like This)"

== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
* In a cartoon by Swedish artist Beverloo:
{{quote| Girl at party: What a nice girl like me is doing at a place like this? I'm a hooker, of course!}}
* A [[Garfield]] comic had this exchange:
{{quote| '''Garfield''': What's a girl like you doing in a place like this?<br />
'''Arlene''': But this is a nice place.<br />
'''Garfield''': Like I said... What's a girl like '''YOU''' doing in a place like '''THIS'''? }}

== [[Theatre]] ==
* There was a musical revue in the 1970s called "What's a Nice Country Like You Doing in a State Like This?"
* ''[[City of Angels]]'':
{{quote| '''Stone''' (to Bobbi): "Let me take you away from all this," is that the routine? "What's a nice kid like you, et cetera?" What ''is'' a nice kid like you, et cetera?}}

== [[Video Games]] ==
* Upon linking up with the mole in ''[[Fallout]]'''s [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon|Final Dungeon]]:
{{quote| “What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?”<br />
“Uh heh… [[I Always Wanted to Say That|Waiting desperately]] for someone to use that pathetic line on me.” }}
* Guybrush says this to De Singe in ''[[Tales of Monkey Island]] Chapter 1: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal'': "So, how'd a dazzling urbanite like yourself wind up in a sleepy pirate island like Flotsam?"

== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Used in ''[[Star Wars the Clone Wars]]'', in the virus episode.
** In season 4 a mook tries to hit on [[Dark Action Girl|Asajj Ventress]] like this.

{{reflist}}
[[Category:This Trope Is X]]
[[Category:Stock Phrases]]
[[Category:Whats An X Like You Doing In AY Like This]]
[[Category:Trope]]