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Emily: Lorelai? I'm going shopping this afternoon. I thought I'd pick up a few things for Rory.

Lor: I already took care of all that, mom. I got her two skirts and a bunch of tops.

Emily: But there are five days in a school week.

Lor: Really? Because my days-of-the-week underwear only go to Thursday.

Emily: Is that a joke?

Lor: Two skirts are fine, mom.

This conversation is from the Gilmore Girls TV series. Lorelai is Rory’s mother.

I googled "days of the week underwear" and found out that they are a set of underwear with days of the week written on them.

But what's the meaning of "go to" in this context? I don't understand what this sentence as a whole means.

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  • 13
    don't understand the down vote. As a non-English speaker the meaning of "go to thursday" wasn't easy to grasp even after googling online especially because "go" has so many meanings.
    – dbwlsld
    Sep 22, 2019 at 7:57
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    And because to has many usages too. :) Anyway, to protect your questions from negative feedback (down votes, close votes, etc), try to provide some research, even if it seems pointless.
    – Em. ♦
    Sep 22, 2019 at 8:52
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    Not sure saying "even if it seems pointless" is very good advice, looking up go to in a dictionary and posting a link IN the question, would have shown that the answer is not at all "obvious": macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/go-to_1
    – Mari-Lou A
    Sep 22, 2019 at 11:56
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    @Mari-LouA Yes, that was my point. It may seem sufficient to simply say "I didn't find anything useful", but some aren't convinced by that (e.g. the close/down voters). So (any) OP can help convince those voters by providing that research, that link the OP thinks wasn't not useful. Of course, you can't convince everyone. :)
    – Em. ♦
    Sep 23, 2019 at 0:31

5 Answers 5

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Go from [something] to [something else] can describe or define a sequence from the first something to the other something. In other words, from and to are being used in an ordinary way to indicate a starting point and an ending point.

  • It goes from A to D. → A B C D
  • ... goes from 1 to 3. → 1 2 3
  • These go to 11. → 1 2 3... 10 11

It's understood that the starting point is Monday, since that's when the school week starts. Hence

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday

Days-of-the-week underwear are underwear with the days of the week printed on it, one day per pair. When Lorelai says

Really? Because my days-of-the-week underwear only go to Thursday.

she's implying that she doesn't know there are five days in the school week because she only has four days-of-the-week underwear (Monday through Thursday). As others have stated, this is sarcasm. We can infer that the intention is something like

I know there are five days in a school week. I don't need to be reminded.

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It is possible to buy underwear with a day printed on it as a joke or as a gentle reminder to a child (or adult) to change their pants each day.

But I think Lorelai is being very sarcastic here. Emily implies that only two skirts are not enough, and Rory should be wearing a fresh skirt each day. Lorelai sarcastically says "I didn't know that there are five school days, because my kids pants go to Thursday" ("go to Thursday" means she has Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thrusday, but not Friday) This means (without sarcasm) "I know that there are five school days. Everybody knows that. I don't need to look at my pants to find out which day it is."

The use of sarcasm is very common when teens talk to their parents.

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    thanks, I understood the sarcasm here. But I'm still not quite sure about the "go to" part. So what she means by (not the implied meaning) "underwear go to thursday" is that she only has four underwear, each of which has Monday to Thursday printed on them?
    – dbwlsld
    Sep 22, 2019 at 7:52
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    I think the whole phrase is sarcastic. Lorelei doesn't actually have any day-of-the-week pants. However, she claims that she only has four pairs: Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu but not Fri. Since it is not to be taken seriously, I don't think we can draw any more implications
    – James K
    Sep 22, 2019 at 19:17
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    there is utterly no connection to underwear with literally words printed on them. It's completely commonplace tos peak about your "days of the week underwear" simply meaning "you have a fresh pair for each day of the week." It's that simple.
    – Fattie
    Sep 22, 2019 at 19:52
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    @Fattie I don't agree. If I hear people referring to "days-of-the-week underwear" I would assume it has the days printed on it. It is a fairly common product. I suppose someone could have a system "red = monday" etc but I wouldn't assume that.
    – James K
    Sep 22, 2019 at 20:21
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    Meanwhile, Irish me is just being very confused that Rory is apparently a girl's name. Americans are strange.
    – TRiG
    Sep 23, 2019 at 10:09
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This sounds like a sexual innuendo. The surrounding context makes the situation sound like a late teen female discussing a younger sibling with her mum. Given that Lorelai is shopping for clothes for her younger sibling, it is safe to assume she is either legally an adult or almost so.

Lorelai's day of the week pants only go to Thursday. The literal meaning is in Em's answer. But the hidden implication is that Lorelai does not wear pants on a Friday.

This is potentially an off colour joke, given mum's reaction. The same phrase between peers would imply a certain availability on a Friday night.

The updated context that the show is the Gilmore Girls doesn't really change anything. Lorelai is an adult and during the show is in relationships with a number of different people. The conversation seems like a two digs at her mother, firstly that she is capable of clothing her own child appropriately and secondly suggesting a reason why she might not be able to that simultaneously puts the fault onto her own mother whilst calling back to the underlying premise of the show, Lorelai's teen pregnancy that resulted in Rory.

The TV Tropes page praises wordplay as one of the selling points of the show.

What really sets Gilmore Girls apart from other shows of its type is the heavy use of clever, fast-paced wordplay. Really fast.

Sexual innuendo is at heart wordplay, no matter what else it means for the characters.

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    There is utterly no connection to sexual innuendo.
    – Fattie
    Sep 22, 2019 at 19:51
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    I have no idea why the downvotes; this was my first interpretation. (Note, as mentioned in another comment, that Lorelai is a single woman in her 30s and Em is Lorelai's mother.)
    – chrylis -cautiouslyoptimistic-
    Sep 23, 2019 at 0:28
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    @chrylis The downvotes are because this couldn't be further from sexual innuendo, this answer is completely incorrect and doesn't understand the context of the show at all.
    – linksassin
    Sep 23, 2019 at 6:35
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    I can see where you are coming from. That single line in isolation could be interpreted that way, however the preceding line is context enough to know that that that isn't the case here. The line is about refuting the need to be reminded of the number of days in the week, it has nothing to do with a sexual innuendo.
    – linksassin
    Sep 23, 2019 at 8:06
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    Perhaps sexual innuendo is the wrong phrasing, but it's extremely obvious that it means she doesn't bother with panties on Friday. If that is sexual innuendo or not is, I suppose, subjective.
    – Bill K
    Sep 23, 2019 at 16:04
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Lorleia was poking at her mom for stating an obvious fact that there are five days in a school week.

WLor: Really? Because my days-of-the-week underwear only go to Thursday.

Sarcastically suggesting she thought there were only 4 days based on her set of available underwear.

Emily: Is that a joke?

Lor: Two skirts are fine, mom.

Satisfied that her Mom is thrown off guard, she confirms her assertion that the two skirts she bought will be sufficient.

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Days of the week underwear are usually for school-aged children and sold seven panties in a pack (with one day of the week printed on each panty). Lorelai is sarcastically joking that she only thought there were four days in the school week because her days of the week underwear only go from Monday to Thursday. (In other words, she is pretending she didn't realize there are five school days because she only has Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday panties and no panties with "Friday" printed on them.)

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