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{{One source|date=September 2023}}
{{Short description|Type of personal servant}}
{{about|jobs that include running errands|the animal|Gopher|other uses|Gofer (disambiguation)|and|Gopher (disambiguation)}}A '''gofer''', '''go-fer''' or '''gopher''' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɡ|oʊ|f|ər}} is an [[employee]] who specializes in the delivery of special items to their superior(s). Examples of these special items include a cup of coffee, a tool, a tailored suit, or a car. Outside of the business world, the term is used to describe a child or young adult who is learning how to do tasks and is sent to fetch items. A similar job is that of [[wikt:peon#English|peon]] in [[Commonwealth countries]].{{cn|date=January 2018}}
''Gofer'' may also refer to a junior member of an organisation who generally receive the most vexing and thankless work. Law firms with a top-heavy management structure, having not enough junior lawyers to take care of menial yet necessary tasks, can be referred to as having "too many [[slackers|loafers]] and not enough ''gophers''".<ref>{{cite book|title=Stage Manager: The Professional Experience|author=Larry Fazio|year= 2000|publisher=Focal Press|isbn=0-240-80336-1|page=310}}</ref>
==Etymology==
Gofer derives from “go for” and typifies a boss’s often impromptu order to an underling, usually a menial one, to go and fetch something, frequently of a personal nature, such as coffee, [[dry cleaning|dry-cleaned garments]], or [[postage stamps]]. The term originated in [[North America]].{{cn|date=September 2023}}
==In popular culture==
{{Unreferenced section|date=September 2023}}
In the first season (1976) of the television series ''[[The Muppet Show]]'', [[Scooter (Muppet)|Scooter]] was given the stage manager job because his uncle owned the theater where the [[The Muppets|Muppets]] performed. The [[pun]] was that a [[gopher]] not only is an animal, like the Muppets supposedly are, but is a fast animal, collecting food and delivering it somewhere else. At some point in the Muppets series, [[Kermit the Frog]] suggested that he himself was a gofer, but probably didn't last long in the job.
[[Chavo Guerrero]] was considered to be a gofer for his aunt [[Vickie Guerrero]] on [[WWE]]'s ''[[SmackDown (WWE brand)|SmackDown]]'' for most of 2008 (Vickie was ''SmackDown's'' General Manager at the time) when they were both part of the [[Heel (professional wrestling)|villainous]] [[La Familia (professional wrestling)|La Familia]] stable. This would become a sporadic running joke on WWE programming as other superstars would mock Chavo for this reason.
The 2008 film ''[[WALL-E]]'' features a robotic gofer (named GO-4, a pun on gofer), who is the henchman of the villainous [[Artificial intelligence|AI]] autopilot AUTO.
[[Brad Pitt]]'s character Cliff Booth is a gofer for Rick Dalton ([[Leonardo DiCaprio]]) in the 2019 movie ''[[Once Upon a Time in Hollywood]]''.
In the TV series ''[[Entourage (American TV series)|Entourage]]'', the character [[Turtle (Entourage)|Salvatore "Turtle" Assante]], is gofer to movie star [[Vincent Chase]].
In [[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]]: [[The JoJoLands]], the main character, Jodio Joestar, is a gofer and gangster for the state's underground drug trade.
==References==
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[[Category:Employment classifications]]
[[Category:Office work]]