In a Russian forum, one user commented on a situation with Дадим стране угля... and that was enough to make everyone in the room agree or laugh or both. What does that imply?
Update: The whole comment was Дадим стране угля: мелкого, но до х!**, but I didn't think the second part was actually part of the idiom.
There's a humorous, off-color second part to this that basically means "a lot."
Дадим стране угля: мелкого, но до х**! (Let's give the country a lot of coal; abundant in quantity, but leaving much to be desired in terms of quality.)
The meaning is as follows: Проявление решимости при начале работы, настрой на то, чтобы решить возникшие проблемы невзирая на возможные трудности.
-Жгучий глагол. Словарь народной фразеологии
It expresses a determination to start working or solve problems despite hardships.
The word даёшь has two meanings.
First of them is "we demand" or, by extension, "let's make happen", used in slogans: даёшь пятилетку в четыре года "let's make the five years' plan goals be met in four years", даёшь Кузбасс etc. One of the translations of the movie "Apocalypse Now" is titled Даёшь апокалипсис!
Даёшь стране угля is one of these slogans. It means "more coal for your country".
The second one is a part of the set phrase ну ты даёшь which is said to express surprise or astonishment, often combined with disapproval, of someone's actions. This is something you would say when your friend would tell you that they got drunk and spent a night at the police station, or if they spent a night with a hot stranger. It is somewhat similar to the English expression "you're on the roll" or "you're on fire", but with undertone of disapproval.
This phrase is a contraction of даёшь жару, literally "you're giving heat". Давать жару was a part of the navy stokers' slang, meaning "keep fire under the engine burning hot".
Ну ты даёшь стране угля is a deliberate contamination of the two, for the comic effect. It might be further embellished, like даёшь стране угля, мелкого, но до хуя.
So, давать стране угля means "to be on the roll, to be on fire", except the things someone is doing are hilarious in a somewhat bad way.
- Выручил Старцев. Он выхватил у одного из бандитов нож, размахнулся и метнул вдогонку. Бросок удался на славу. Нож вошел под лопатку аж по самую рукоять. – Даешь стране угля, Харитоныч! – уважительно пробасил Егоров.
- Ну ты, Анька, даешь стране угля! Надо же такое ляпнуть! "Вонючая душегубка!" И это о моей "ласточке"! Да чтобы ты знала, эта машина старше тебя на добрых двадцать лет.
Дать угля (not уголь, which would be more grammatically correct, but угля) came to Russian language in ~1935, when Stahanov managed to produce huge amount of coal from a mine "Irmino Central". That event started the Stahanov movement: huge PR campaign (songs, newspaper articles, speeches by Soviet leaders, movies, etc.), an army of followers in many fields outside coal mining, and millions of jokes including at least one Vysotsky's song containing these words:
Вот раскопаем - он опять
Начнет три нормы выполнять,
Начнет стране угля давать - и нам хана.
Дать угля is one of the phrases originated at that time along with some other "mining" words like "вира, майна", phrases like "выдать на гора" and so on.
