Like for instance someone saying “Gopher John” when answering the phone. What does this mean?

  • Remmock@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    It’s commonly used when you pick up a radio on a public band.

    So if you have a jobsite where there are 100 radios, and someone needs to reach Ted, they’ll page the radio and say something like “Hey Ted, do you copy?” and Ted will respond with “Go for Ted,” which means yes, Ted is here and he’s listening, go ahead.

    It was used in a small way some 40 years ago and never really caught on.

  • PutangInaMo@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’m American and I’ve never heard this used.

    But after thinking about it, gopher is a play on words that means “go for”. So saying gopher John is like saying “go for John” and can be a greeting.

    • thrawn@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      “Go for X” was somewhat common, including in media. I think OP was mishearing that. There’s virtually no way to differentiate between “gopher” and a rushed, casual “go for” in speech.

    • Curious Canid@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Me too and me neither. I’m over sixty, I’ve lived in various parts of the country, and I’ve never head anyone say that.

      I want to know what that’s about too!

  • noisehound@lemmy.villa-straylight.social
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    1 year ago

    I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone say that at the start of a phone call but it’s common when communicating with two-way radios like:

    “Alex for John, over”

    “Go for John, over”

    “<whatever Alex needs to say to John>”

    I mostly heard that when working in large retail stores, usually the walkie talkies have an end-transmission sound que so we didn’t actually have to say ‘over’ at the end

  • RanchOnPancakes@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    You see in the US there are secret underground copies of all of our houses and gopher versions live there.

    They are making it clear if you are speaking to John or Gopher John.

    Sorry, for real I’ve never heard this before. Can you tell us where you heard it from? I’m really curious now.

  • HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It’s our national rodent and I’ll thank you to take appropriate pride in her. Squeeker squeek.

    I think they’re saying “go for John”. I saw it on a movie once and thought “huh” and my buddy Chris did it a couple times, but that’s about all my IRL experience with it.

  • EntropicalVacation@midwest.social
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    1 year ago

    American here, and I’ve never heard anyone seriously answer the phone this way. I did have a co-worker who would answer “Go for Mike” as a joke when he knew the caller. I had the impression it was from silly comedy or sit-com or meme that went around for a while.

  • ExRedditor1928@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Never heard this before.

    Maybe this is related: when I did a huge remodeling construction job for a summer as an unskilled laborer, I basically ran around and helped different people on everything. That’s sometimes called being a “go-fer boy”. “Go for this, go for that” meaning I would always run around and fetch tools and do simple tasks.