LOL! This reminds of my dad telling me how he used to get the computers in the backroom of mission control working, by giving them a solid thump. Sometimes things got stuck back then and a good whack would get the drives moving again.
You must have heard many interesting stories from your dad.
We had a computer operator who would hit the monitors. We said she “Fargoed” it. Her last name was Fargo. It worked though.