What Have You Done for Me Lately?

• Main
• All Subpages
• Create New

A classic Stock Phrase with a number of familiar variations. Generally it's a witty remark on the part of the protagonist, when the villain starts listing all the good things they've done. Sometimes it's played for comedy, and the villain (or whoever's holding the Idiot Ball) comes up with good, concise, and valid answers. The latter version tends to happen more in pastiche.

"What has Sheraton done for you lately? What has Sheraton done for you now?" —TV Jingle from 1970s ad campaign for Sheraton hotel chain

Can be the Lampshade Hanging if the Ungrateful Bastard is called on their behavior. Might be a sign that the character is outliving their usefulness or is not appreciated back at home.

Examples of What Have You Done for Me Lately? include:

• A variation, and Deconstructive Parody, of this showed up in Monty Python's Life of Brian when the Jewish freedom fighters were arguing about the advances brought to Israel by the Roman Occupation.

Reg: But apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us? Xerxes: Brought peace? Reg: Oh, peace!... Shut up!

• • In their defense, education, sanitation, wine, public order, and roads existed in pre-Roman Israel. The Pythons were just generally spoofing resistance fighters against occupations that raised the standard of living instead of trying to remain perfectly true to history.
• Appears in The Simpsons: When Bart gets a job as his assistant, Krusty doesn't remember him. Bart reels off the number of times he's saved his career/life, Krusty replies:

Krusty: What have you done for me lately? Bart: I got you that danish. Krusty: And I'll never forget it.

• • Also in an episode featuring the family pets to a large degree (beginning with Snowball 2 saving Homer's life but focusing on the relationship with Santa's Little Helper.

Homer: It was probably that stupid cat [referring to an excretion in his lunchbox] Marge: That cat saved your life. Homer: What has he done for me lately? Marge: He woke you up when you stopped breathing last night. Homer: Yeah, but he ate the last can of tuna. Lisa: Dad, you ate the last can of tuna Homer: Everyone's against me.

• Kurt Vonnegut has Winston Niles Rumfoord in The Sirens of Titan use this line with the Tralfamadorian messenger Salo, and referring to it as an old joke, and not a very good one.
• There was a hotel commercial with the Jingle "What has Sheraton done for you lately / What has Sheraton done for you now?" then they probably got Fridge Logic and realized if their customers thought about it, they'd go to either a better class of hotel for the same money, or another chain which offered the same class of accomodations for less.
• Used frequently in The Boondocks.

Riley: What's Granddad done for me lately? Huey: He gave you life. Riley: What's he done for me lately? Huey: He got you a Playstation for Christmas. Riley: It's March already! What has he done for me lately?

• Happens to Gwen and Bun-Bun in Sluggy Freelance.

Gwen: Why won't you help me?! What did I ever do to you?! Bun-Bun: The question you should ask is, what did you ever do for me?

• And of course, there's Janet Jackson
• The entire Marvel Universe has had this since Civil War started. Every event in the past fifty years in Marvel? Took place within roughly the last fifteen in Comic Book Time. They were still cleaning up from Galactus' last attack when they beat the Human Torch into a coma. The public turns on superheroes so fast that it's a wonder any of them even cared enough to fight.
  • There's a very good reason for it.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=184NTV2CE_c Perfect example.
• Naturally, it's also a lengthy bit in Eddie Murphy's stand-up special Raw.
• Issue 1 of the comic Blood Pack, have this line said by a general about the main characters:

Yes, they saved the planet months ago, but what have they done for us latey?

• In Undercover Brother, the protagonists are discussing which party a black general might run for president under. One suggests he could go Republican, and Conspiracy Brother rants, "Name one thing the Republican party has ever done for black people!" Smart Brother answers they were the party of Lincoln, who freed the slaves. Conspiracy Brother then refines his protest: "Okay, name two things lately!"
• The BBC has a series of serious documentaries called "What The [Inhabitants Of Time Period] Did For Us.
• Real Genius:

Chris: I have advanced your project more than any three students on campus. Jerry: That was yesterday. What have you done for me today?

• This is probably why everyone leaps on Clelebs who fuck up. "oh, sure, he/she's a great (X) but they're hideous without makeup/ picked up someone in a bar, things everyone does, or at least tries to do. Let's point and laugh, then bitch when they refuse a movie role."
• In the Vorkosigan Saga, Miles, thinking of the costs the Barrayaran government incurs in funding his alter ego Admiral Naismith, notes that the day that Naismith cannot provide an answer to that question is the day he ceases to exist.
• A guest on Radio 4's Quote Unquote mentions that her father, who was a rabbi, used to say that "people never ask their rabbi 'what have you done for me?' but 'what have you done for me lately?'"
• The Mad Magazine spoof of Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets featured this. As in the book, the students are growing suspicious of Harry. Harry points out that he saved them all last year, and the respond with the trope.