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Today I heard the phrase なんてことしてくれた, as in:

君！なんてことしてくれたんだ！

which I learned means "Look what you've done". I thought くれる was only used when someone does something nice for you. Is this just a set phrase, where くれる is being used sarcastically, or are there other times you can use くれる when someone does something you don't like?

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    This pattern reminds me a little bit of the adversative passive, where you use passive voice to indicate that an action affected you negatively. Not sure if they're related, though.
    – Amanda S
    Jun 11, 2011 at 19:17
  • @Amanda S - That makes two of us. I believe they must be related.
    – user364
    Jun 23, 2011 at 10:34

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Speaking from personal experience, I do hear the ~くれる form used this way all the time in video games and such, and it seems to me that it does carry a kind of sarcasm(the Japanese kind :D).

I mostly hear やってくれたな! when the opponent does something to the person, but I seldom hear it used this way on any word besides する and やる, so I'd assume yours is a good bet.

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    You can find a similar style of sarcastic gratitude in English, such as when someone says "thanks a lot" for something that actually did more harm than good. In English, though, all you have to go on is the intonation, whereas in Japanese you tend to get a bit more explicit context, like in 「よくもだましてくれたな！」.
    – Derek Schaab
    Jun 10, 2011 at 17:50

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