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In a recent episode of TV series Suits (which revolves around Lawyers) character Mike says the line:

You heard Cahill. He needs an answer yesterday.

Isn't it incorrect English? Can yesterday be used for tomorrow? If so what are the rules?

I heard a similar use of yesterday in the same TV series in a very old episode but took that to be my weaker understanding of English grammar then.

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    In case brando’s answer didn't flesh it out clearly enough: no, yesterday cannot be used to mean tomorrow. In the context you quote here, the meaning is exaggerated and hyperbolic, but literal: it means ‘the day before today’.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Aug 27, 2016 at 0:22
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    As the old management joke goes: Manager screaming into a phone: "Of course I want it yesterday! If it wanted it today, I'd have asked you tomorrow!".
    – alephzero
    Commented Aug 27, 2016 at 0:30
  • I understand what this quote means, but should it not be in the past tense: "He needed an answer yesterday?"
    – shea
    Commented Sep 5, 2016 at 12:44

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It means he needs it extremely urgently. It means he wants an answer right away, and he would have preferred to have it before now (yesterday).

From Wiktionary:

Verb need it yesterday

(idiomatic) To need something immediately or urgently; to need something that is already late.

1972 Hearings, reports and prints of the Senate Committee on Government Operations, U.S. G.P.O., p119 We need help - and we need it yesterday - if local government is to remain a viable entity in our society [...]

1980 Thomas A. Rullo, Advances in computer programming management, Heyden, p153 Many people in systems work are so used to digging in and getting the job done in record time (we need it yesterday!) that the thought of taking several weeks to develop a plan before "doing" anything might sound like heresy to them.

2006 Climate change: the "citizen's agenda", eighth report of session 2006-07, Vol. 2: Oral and written evidence, Volume 2, The Stationery Office, p511 We need a cultural change and shift in people’s perceptions of the concept of “progress” but we need it yesterday and are fast running out of time.

2006 Joyce Rosenwald & Michel Bonner, The Sinclair Solution, p154 “Take care of it then,” the President shouted. “I need a summary of the situation and I need a solution. And, I need it yesterday.”

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    You should add the appropriate reference(s). I've added one for you.
    – alwayslearning
    Commented Aug 26, 2016 at 19:32
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    Possibly worth mentioning that there is a term for this, hyperbole.
    – cobaltduck
    Commented Aug 26, 2016 at 20:23

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