All That Work and What Did It Get Me

About

All That Work and What Did It Get Me is a catchphrase and trending audio on TikTok that comes from a line sung by Kurt in the show Glee. Originally uploaded in 2022, the audio went viral in early 2024 with several different TikToks using it reaching millions of likes in a short time. The primary usage of the soundbite is to show that a specific skill that was practiced and perfected was wasted time after something in the situation changed.

Origin

On May 11th, 2010, the 18th episode of the first season of Glee was released, titled "Laryngitis." In the episode, the character Kurt attempts to change how they act to impress their father, which is the catalyst for the song being made. On November 15th, 2017, the song "Rose's Turn" was uploaded to YouTube by the channel MusicOfGlee,^[1] which features the line at the 55-second mark (shown below).

The audio was uploaded to TikTok in mid-2022 and used in an unironically positive way at first. On July 9th, 2022, the TikToker jo_punzel^[2] uploaded a look at their long blonde hair, captioning it as "Rapunzel" and gaining over 5.8 million likes in two years. This would be the most liked usage of the audio for two years, with it not being used until it's post-ironic revival in early 2024.

Spread

In early 2024 the audio was revived and received a lot of attention, though through the original meaning of the song that the time was wasted. This can be seen in various TikToks made in February 2024, with TikToker ray_kenley^[3] creating a version in which they claim that paying attention and still getting the same grade is a waste of time, and TikToker Mary.Be.Eating^[4] used it to shed light on a change to a rule in Volleyball, which would nullify years of practice (shown below, left and right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References