A DETAILED Biography Of Goofy
Click here for "A BRIEF Biography of Goofy"
Click here for a 16 minute video showing "The Evolution of Goofy"
Click here for a 12 minute video on "The Voice Evolution of Goofy"
THE MODERN GOOFY
Now known as Goofy, he was called Dippy Dawg when created in 1932. In 1950s cartoons, he occasionally played a character called George Geef or G.G. Geef. In the 1990s TV series Goof Troop, his full name was G. G. "Goofy" Goof. The surname Goof continues to be sometimes used.
Goofy is a tall, anthropomorphic dog (some disagree that he’s a dog!) who typically wears a turtle neck shirt and vest, pants, shoes, white gloves, and a tall hat. Goofy is a close friend of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. He is normally characterized as being extremely clumsy and somewhat dimwitted — yet this interpretation is not always definitive — occasionally Goofy is shown as being intuitive and clever, although in his own unique, eccentric way.
Goofy's catchphrases are "gawrsh!" (which is his usual exclamation of surprise and his way of pronouncing "gosh"), along with "ah-hyuck!" (a distinctive chuckle) that is sometimes followed by a "hoo hoo hoo hoo!", and especially the Goofy holler which is the cry Goofy makes when falling or being launched into the air, that can be transcribed as "Yaaaaaaa-hoo-hoo-hoo-hooey”!
THE HISTORY OF GOOFY
Goofy first appeared in Mickey's Revue (May 25, 1932), an animated cartoon of a song and dance show featuring Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow.
He was a new character — unnamed but later called Dippy Dawg by Disney artists — playing an audience member who constantly irritated his fellow spectators by noisily crunching peanuts and laughing loudly, until two of them knocked him out with their mallets (and then did the same exact laugh as he did). This early version of Goofy looked different than later ones — he was an old man with a white beard, a puffy tail and no trousers, shorts, or undergarments — but it did introduce his distinct laughter.
By his seventh appearance (Orphan's Benefit, 1934), the character gained the name "Goofy" and became a regular member of the gang along with two other new characters, Donald Duck and Clara Cluck. But Goofy's personality really began to take shape in the 1935 cartoon Moving Day, in which animators built up his role and gave his character definition. And thus, a new Disney star was born!
The second half of the 1930s was the golden age of Disney cartoon shorts, as the Studio reached unprecedented achievements in personality animation. Goofy was teamed with Mickey and Donald in a variety of comedy situations that frequently ended in chaos. Cartoon shorts such as Lonesome Ghosts, Clock Cleaners, Boat Builders, Mickey's Service Station, and Mickey's Trailer looked at how each character reacted to similar circumstances. Goofy's first solo-starring vehicle was Goofy and Wilbur (1939). This short fully explored Goofy's emotional range as he shared a fishing trip with his grasshopper pal, Wilbur.
Goofy's multimedia status was launched in 1933, with appearances in daily Mickey Mouse comic strips, as a neighbor and occasional associate of Mickey in his activities. Because the needs of the daily and weekly Mickey Mouse strips quickly exhausted the situations, stories, and characters that had been created for the films, comic artists and writers created new situations and adventures that, particularly in the case of Goofy, helped define and develop the characters and their personalities.
In the 1930s, merchandising of the characters became a successful and vital part of the Disney Studio. Mickey and Minnie were seen on most of the products issued early on, followed by Donald Duck soon after. From 1935 on, Goofy began to appear on a wide range of merchandise objects, although in a supporting role. Early merchandise appearances include novelty playing cards (on the joker, naturally), tin toys, jigsaw puzzles, and plush toys. As his motion picture and print popularity increased in the '40s and '50s, Goofy was featured on merchandise lines of his own.
Goofy’s fame grew in the 1940s with the popular "How to” series of sporting films (The Art of Skiing, How to Ride a Horse, etc). In these shorts, the Goof responds in pantomime to a droll professorial narrative, the stodgy seriousness of the narrator playing in sharp contrast to Goofy’s clumsy demonstrations. The result is a hilarious visual depiction of "how NOT to" accomplish the task being described. But through it all, Goofy remains undaunted, determined, never frustrated, and always ready to move on to the next lesson. Because every single character was a different version of Goofy, this took him out of the role of just being a clumsy cartoon character and into an Everyman figure. It is perhaps for this series of nearly two dozen cartoons that Goofy's film career is most fondly remembered.
During World War II Goofy was drafted and became the mascot emblem of the 602nd Bombardment Squadron and the 756 Bombardment Squadron U.S. Air Corps.
The 1950s saw Goofy transformed into a family man going through the pitfalls of everyday suburban life, such as dieting, giving up smoking, and raising children. In this unusual guise he was often known as Mr. George Geef, and because the stories featured Goofy as multiple characters, he had numerous other names as well. These mature roles utilized Goofy's skills as an actor, playing someone other than his traditional persona; for some roles he even shed his distinctive voice. In addition, the 1950s short films gave Goofy a makeover. He was more intelligent, had smaller eyes with eyebrows, often his whole body was pale instead of just his face (while the rest was black). He even lacked his droopy ears, the external pair of teeth and white gloves in some shorts. Goofy's facial stubble and his protruding teeth were removed to give him a more refined look. His clothing changed from a casual style to wearing business suits. He began to look more human and less dog-like, with his ears hidden in his hat. By 1951, Goofy was portrayed as being married and having a son of his own. Neither the wife nor the son was portrayed as dog-like. The wife's face was never seen, but her form was human. The son lacked Goofy's dog-like ears.
In Motor Mania (1950), Goofy transforms into a Mr. Hyde-type split personality (during his "Everyman" period), when he gets behind the wheel and provides the lowdown on how to not drive safely. The cartoon shows how the pleasant, good-natured "Mr. Walker" who "wouldn't hurt a fly nor step on an ant", undergoes a change in personality to the violent "Mr. Wheeler" when he gets behind the wheel of his yellow car. As Mr. Walker he's polite, safe, and good-natured, while as Mr. Wheeler he is very mean, reckless, and predatory. Upon reaching his destination in town and leaving his automobile, he reverts to the mild-mannered Mr. Walker, whereupon he is the victim of other motorists' unsafe (and sometimes even predatory) driving habits. However, once he returns to his car, he becomes Mr. Wheeler again, seeking to impose his own will upon traffic, to the point of blaming the tow truck which hauls him away for his slow pace after his own auto accident. He breaks the fourth wall by telling the narrator, "Ah, shut up!” while educating him (and the fourth wall) on safe driving habits. (Mr. Walker makes a cameo reading a newspaper in Toontown in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.)
Motor Mania is historically significant: it reveals that road rage is not a recent phenomenon, but also an issue recurring with each generation of drivers; and it has been widely shown in driving schools and traffic safety classes (along with two 1965 Goofy cartoons about freeway safety, Freewayphobia #1 and Goofy's Freeway Troubles).
An animation historian connects this “Everyman” depiction of the character to Disney's use of humor and animal characters to reinforce social conformity. He cites as an example Aquamania (1961), where Everyman Goofy drives to the lake for a boat ride. During a scene depicting a pile-up accident, every car involved has a boat hitched to its rear bumper. Goofy is portrayed as one of numerous people who had the same idea about how to spend their day. Every contestant in the boat race also looks like Goofy. Disney did not do this to poke fun at conformity; instead, the studio apparently accepted conformity as a fundamental aspect of the society of the United States, maintaining and prolonging the status quo of the 1950s. Society was changing in the 1960s but the Disney studio followed the same story formulas for theatrical animated shorts it had followed in the previous decade. And Disney received social approval for this approach: Aquamania received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short Film.
As Disney ceased regular production of short cartoons in 1956, the classic characters were getting a new lease on life from the very medium that led to the end of theatrical shorts, television. Goofy could regularly be seen on several Disney TV shows (including The Mickey Mouse Club and The Wonderful World of Disney). Some of the episodes featured Goofy's classic cartoon appearances in newly created story frameworks. Along with the rest of "the gang," Goofy has been an integral part of The Disney Channel since its inception in 1983. Goofy has been a consistent part of the home-video market since 1980.
After the educational film Goofy's Freeway Troubles (1965), Goofy was mostly retired except for cameos, because of fading popularity and the death of the voice actor who portrayed him. He made a comeback in Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983) as the ghost of Jacob Marley; and in Sport Goofy In Soccermania (1987 TV special).
He makes a brief appearance in Disney/Amblin's Academy Award-winning hit Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), in which the titular Roger Rabbit says of Goofy: "Nobody takes a whollup like Goofy! What timing! What finesse! What a genius!"
In the 1990s, Goofy got his own TV animated series, Goof Troop. It focused on Goofy getting himself into hilariously entertaining situations alongside occasional neighbors but mostly all around bad guy, Pete. The series focused on the relationship between Goofy and his son Max, paving the way for them to star in two theatrical movies: A Goofy Movie (1995) and An Extremely Goofy Movie (2000); as well as starring in their own segments of Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas (1999) and Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas (2004). While Goofy is clearly depicted as a single custodial parent in all of these appearances, by the end of An Extremely Goofy Movie he begins a romance with the character Sylvia Marpole; Max is away at college.
Goofy returned to his traditional personality in Mickey Mouse Works and appeared as a head waiter in House of Mouse (2001- 2004). Goofy's son Max also appeared in House of Mouse as the nightclub's valet, so that Goofy juggled not only his conventional antics but also the father-role displayed in Goof Troop and related media. Goofy also seemed to have a crush on Clarabelle Cow, as he asks her on a date in the House of Mouse episode "Super Goof" and is stalked by the bovine in the Mickey Mouse Works cartoon "How to Be a Spy". Though Clarabelle was noted as Horace Horsecollar's fiancé in early decades, more recent cartoons imply some mutual affections between Goofy and Clarabelle; perhaps this is an as an attempt to give Goofy a more mainstream girlfriend to match his male co-stars Mickey and Donald.
On Disney's Toontown Online, an interactive website for kids, Goofy previously ran his own neighborhood called Goofy Speedway until the close of Toontown. Goofy Speedway was a place where you could race cars and enter the Grand Prix, too. Tickets were exclusively spent on everything there, instead of the usual jellybean currency.
Goofy also appeared in the interactive computer-animated children's TV series, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (2006-2016), with his trademark attire and personality. Goofy appeared in The Lion King 1½ (2004), an animated comedy adventure film released direct to video.
Goofy starred in a new theatrical cartoon short, How to Hook Up Your Home Theater, that had a wide release in front of National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007).
In 2011, Goofy appeared in a promotional webtoon advertising Disney Cruise Line. He is also a main character on Mickey Mouse Mixed-Up Adventures (2017-present), a computer-animated children's TV series that is a spin-off of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.
In 2021, the Disney+ streaming service released three all-new Goofy cartoons called "How To Stay At Home." These hand drawn (not CGI) shorts depict relatable, funny, and pandemic-era situations that many of us experienced: “How to Wear a Mask,” “Learning to Cook,” and “Binge Watching.” For all that we’ve been through, who better to give us a laugh and smile about it than Goofy?
Despite his continued fame, Goofy has never been too busy to personally greet his fans and friends at Disneyland Park, Walt Disney World Resort, Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Paris. He stars in parades and stage shows, as well as strolling through the various parks and "goofing around" with guests. He has also performed in "Walt Disney's World on Ice" and in arena shows such as "Disney on Parade."
“FAKE NEWS” ABOUT GOOFY
“Is Disney’s Goofy Character Actually A Cow?" Perhaps the most outrageous Internet “fake news” claim is that Goofy was modeled after a breed of Scottish cow, rather than being an anthropomorphic dog (that is, a dog having human features)!
This claim has been exposed as a hoax by the Snopes fact-checking website. It reveals that the claim supposedly is supported by an “investigative article” published in 2012 by the website Reel Rundown. While that article did contain some factual information regarding the history of the Goofy character — which is likely the reason why some people have accepted it as a truthful account of Goofy’s supposed sordid past — it is peppered with exaggerations, speculation, outright fabrications, and was clearly written with humorous intentions. The author acts as if he is uncovering a vast Disney conspiracy theory aimed at covering up Goofy’s unsavory bovine heritage. He argues that Goofy was actually a foreign-born cow and that Disney was forced to conceal this fact due to the political climate in the 1930s; with American nationalism at a historic high, Goofy’s true heritage could have created a huge scandal for Disney, finishing Goofy’s career just as it was starting to take off.
Even more outlandish, the article imagines Goofy as a living, breathing, physical animal who was born “Dipalwa Dawala” to Egyptian immigrants in Scotland and was “discovered by Disney talent scouts during a livestock sale.” During the “Dark Years” section of the article, the website ups the absurdity by claiming that Goofy’s son died from Mad Cow disease.
The article ends with an “evidence” section claiming that Disney’s history of creating same species couples (Mickey and Minnie, Donald and Daisy) pointed to Goofy’s being a cow since he once had a love interest named Clarabelle the Cow. While it is true that Goofy and Clarabelle Cow were once an item, this is not proof that they were the same species of animal. Clarabelle was the sometimes girlfriend of Horace Horsecollar, who was a horse and not a cow, and the Disney universe includes multiple examples of inter-species couples: Ben Ali Gator, for instance, woos Hyacinth Hippo in Fantasia; Jessica Rabbit (a cartoon human) has a rabbit husband in Who Framed Roger Rabbit; and Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog have an ongoing (if one-sided) relationship in the Muppet canon.
For those who took the time to read the article, it should have been obvious that it was a work of humorous fiction! However, it seems that some readers stopped at the headline and were left convinced that Goofy was actually a cow, not a dog. Although this article was clearly written in jest, some of its curious claims have been spread in support of the “Goofy is a cow” argument. Snopes goes on to dispel some of this misinformation "to stop malicious propagation of rumors about this beloved Disney dog."
One claim is that Goofy was “born” to Egyptian immigrants in Scotland and named “Dipalwa Dawala.” First off, Goofy wasn’t “born” anywhere; he was created by Disney animators in the 1930s. And while Goofy has gone by a number of names during his Disney career (including Super Goof, Dippy Dawg, George G. Geef, Goofus D. Dawg, and Goofy Goof), Snopes was unable to find any credible source listing the character as “Dipalwa Dawala.”
Snopes concludes that the Reel Rundown article was clearly written to be humorous. It did make Snopes curious, however, about Goofy’s actual origins and whether the character was originally intended to represent a dog. They report finding an animator’s 1934 description of Goofy as being a “composite of an everlasting optimist, a gullible Good Samaritan, a half-wit, a shiftless, good-natured coloured boy and a hick.”
In his description of how Goofy should be drawn, the animator mentioned two real-world creatures, neither of which was a cow:
It is true that there is a vague similarity in the construction of the Goof’s head and Pluto’s. The use of the eyes, mouth and ears are entirely different. One is dog, the other human. The Goof’s head can be thought of in terms of a caricature of a person with a pointed dome — large, dreamy eyes, buck teeth and weak chin, a large mouth, a thick lower lip, a fat tongue and a bulbous nose that grows larger on its way out and turns up. His eyes should remain partly closed to help give him a stupid, sloppy appearance, as though he were constantly straining to remain awake, but of course they can open wide for expressions or accents. He blinks quite a bit. His ears for the most part are just trailing appendages and are not used in the same way as Pluto’s ears except for rare expressions. His brow is heavy and breaks the circle that outlines his skull.
Snopes concludes its analysis by stating "We’ve reached out to Disney Animation Studios for more information on Goofy’s background.” Unsurprisingly, Disney did not respond!
"Gawrsh! Goofy’s entire family may be dead — the bizarre, tragic, and likely imagined history of Goofy’s wife and family" GOOFY’S TRAGIC BACKSTORY: GOOFY LIKELY HAS A DEAD WIFE…. ALSO, GOOFY’S WHOLE FAMILY IS PROBABLY DEAD…. THE DARKNESS, SADLY ENOUGH, DOESN’T END THERE…. GAWRSH, HE’S CLINICALLY DEPRESSED! (Click here for the full story.)
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? It seems that making a show for children starring a beloved franchise character, and working within Disney’s constraints, unintentionally created a fiction that implies the character is a widower and that his entire family is probably dead. Or maybe the fan theories are true and this was the plan all along: Goofy has canonically lived a life of tragedy, regret, and pain.
But what can we do with this information? Is there a lesson to derive from Goofy’s past? Probably not. However, the Goofy movies are very weird relics of semi-forgotten 1990s pop culture, and are worth checking out.
If Goofy has taught us anything, it’s that sometimes you just need a good cry to let it all out. If you’re not honest about your own past, and you don’t seek out the help necessary to discuss where you are in life and where you come from, everyone around you may begin to imagine all sorts of strange reasons for your behavior.
Goofy needs help to process his trauma and, after getting that help, one day, he may finally be ready to speak. Maybe not to his fans, but at least to his son. We may not be owed the full story, but Max deserves to hear what happened from his father before it’s too late.