Are there placeholders in spoken Japanese?


I've seen discussions of placeholders in Japanese which seem to centre on how
to pronounce **written** placeholders like ＯＯ, XX, etc. See below for
reference:

  * [How do you pronounce "☓☓" as a placeholder?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/12907/how-do-you-pronounce-as-a-placeholder),
  * [Uses of [◯]{まる} symbol in Japanese typography](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/31147/uses-of-%e3%81%be%e3%82%8b-symbol-in-japanese-typography)
  * [What's the substitute word for missing/unimportant part of sentence?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/12011/whats-the-substitute-word-for-missing-unimportant-part-of-sentence/12012#12012))

But what about an example of a placeholder used in natural speech (i.e. not
reading text)? In English, an example might be somebody saying "Look over
there at whats-his-name". In Japanese, it would seem strange (to me) to use
だれだれ in such a real-time spoken example, like あそこにいる **だれだれ** を見て。What word
might replace it? Are there such equivalents to the English words like 'whats-
his-name"?




Symbol-specific readings such as まるまる or ばつばつ don't work in speech, but other
readings (なんとか, なになに, だれだれ, ほにゃらら, ピー) do work in speech to intentionally hide
the actual name or to explain some grammar rule. See [my previous
answer](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/74259/5010) for the list. 誰かさん is
another common placeholder used mainly as part of a joke or innuendo.

> 誰かさんのせいで失敗した。  
>  It was a failure because of you-know-who.

However, these rarely work when you're trying to remember the name of
someone/something. In such situations, we say 例のあれ, あれ, 例のあの人, あの人, etc.

>   * あそこにいる、例のあの人、見てよ、誰だっけ、ほら。
>   * アレ持ってきて。アレだよアレ。何だっけ、例のアレ。名前忘れた。
>




Symbol-specific readings such as まるまる or ばつばつ don't work in speech, but other
readings (なんとか, なになに, だれだれ, ほにゃらら, ピー) do work in speech to intentionally hide
the actual name or to explain some grammar rule. See [my previous
answer](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/74259/5010) for the list. 誰かさん is
another common placeholder used mainly as part of a joke or innuendo.

> 誰かさんのせいで失敗した。  
>  It was a failure because of you-know-who.

However, these rarely work when you're trying to remember the name of
someone/something. In such situations, we say 例のあれ, あれ, 例のあの人, あの人, etc.

>   * あそこにいる、例のあの人、見てよ、誰だっけ、ほら。
>   * アレ持ってきて。アレだよアレ。何だっけ、例のアレ。名前忘れた。
>

