Just as the ducks at the park are free, there is also no legal requirement to answer the phone in particular way. Hit folks with a, “Ahoyhoy”, “Howdy”, “Whats good brother?”, or for the more adventurous, “Ralphs Roadkill Cafe. You kill it, we grill it.”
“Dave’s pizza and abortion clinic, your loss is our sauce” is a particularly spicy one I’ve heard.
In my family it was variations of “Hello, Joe’s whatever. Insert rhyme here.”
One of my favorites was “Joe’s mortuary, you stab 'em we slab 'em.”
Moshi Moshi
I like the explanation that devious spirits cannot say this phrase and that’s why it’s used. Apparently it’s also just a casual way of saying “I’m ready to talk” and was used by early telephone operators in Japan. It’s most likely people just ended up copying the phrase from operators and aren’t worried about being tricked by foxes.
Fuck Edison.
Edison deserves hate for more than that