Goof Troop is a cartoon from the early Nineties, inspired by the most well-known series of Classic Disney Shorts featuring Goofy. In this series, Goofy is the father of an 11-year old named Max, and lives in the suburbs. Goofy also lives next door to longtime Disney antagonist Pete (who in this version has been turned into less of a villain and more of a total Jerkass), his wife Peg, and his two kids, PJ and Pistol. Even so, Goofy is still just as klutzy and, well, goofy as he was in any of the Disney shorts.Slapstick is the flavour of the day, with all four main characters Goofy, Max, Pete and PJ reguarly taking a lot of comedic punishment and shaking it off with Toon Physics and being Made of Iron.This series led to the creation of two movies - A Goofy Movie and An Extremely Goofy Movie. Word Of God is that yes, they are in the same canon, despite the absence of Peg and Pistol, and the difference between the TV series and the movies like Goofy's and Pete's houses and their location. There was also a video game for the Super Nintendo.
Abusive Father: PJ really is afraid of his father, who insults, belittles, threatens, and yells at him for poor reasons, sometimes in public - already this is emotional abuse. PJ is shown to be eager to leave home, counting down the days once (without looking anything up). He is also afraid of disobeying or failing his father; sometimes he even appears to fear spending time with his father. Their entire relationship revolves around fear and strict control, resulting in him being manipulated by his father to do both dirty jobs and hard manual labour that Pete is perfectly capable of doing but is too lazy. Most disturbingly of all, Pete seems to interpret this fear as respect. The movies strengthened this. Pete's attitude to his son (and his advice on parenting) is almost ruthlessly domineering, while PJ's fearful predictions of his father's harsh punishments suggest previous unpleasant experiences.
P.J:(monotone) Oh man. My dad is going to smash me like a bug.
Achievements in Ignorance: In the Christmas Episode, a bear has Goofy pinned against the fireplace and Max tells him to grab the shotgun above it. Goofy accidentally picks up the mop right next to it and attempts to fire it. It works.
Actor Allusion: The Christmas special has Pistol making two allusions to Bart Simpson. Though the second one — Pistol yelling "Cowabunga!" — is a case of Beam Me Up, Scotty!, since Bart only ever said that once.
Alliterative Name and Repetitive Name: Goofy Goof, Peter Pete and Peter Pete Junior (PJ). The show never plays this up—just the opposite, in fact. We know their first names and their last names independently of each other, but the show never calls any of them by their full names.
Animate Inanimate Object: An expressive fire truck in "Where There's Smoke, There's Goof." No other vehicle has a face. There are also the magic hat in "Talent to the Max", the instruments of "Dr. Horatio's Magic Orchestra" and some bullets in "Gunfight at the Okie-Doke Corral."
Animation Bump: The animation for the series is all over the placenote a side effect of being done by many studios. Special mentions include the opening, "In Goof We Trust", most of Walt Disney Australia's episodes and the Christmas Special. The episodes by Wang Film Productions and Kennedy Cartoons tend to straddle between this and Off Model.
During the first part of Pete's breakdown in "Axed By Addition," he starts out feeling guilty for things like making PJ stay up all night studying, doing menial chores/humiliating things, and then becomes more ridiculous, ending with making him use "the manly deodorant"... and a handkerchief. Then Pete uses Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick the next time we see him.
When Goofy and Pete set up rules in their houses in "Good Neighbor Goof," the last rule Goofy gives Max after various "no contact with the Pete house" rules is "never stick peas up your nose." Goofy prefaces this rule with "lastly, but not leastly."
Ask a Stupid Question...: This exchange from "Bringin' on the Rain", after PJ had collapsed into a covered trench behind him back-first onto a pipe:
Max: You okay?
PJ: Oh, yeah, yeah. This rusty metal pipe broke my fall!
Awesome, but Impractical: Pete basked in this trope, usually to his own detriment. At one point, he owned the most state-of-the-art RV you could possibly imagine...which then gradually fell apart as soon as he began to drive it.
PJ in 'Slightly Dinghy'. When Max wants PJ to ask his dad to take him fishing, he fits PJ with an ear piece so that he can tell PJ what to say, and reads him a text from a father's day card, to try and sway Pete emotionally. PJ reiterates everything he says in emotionless monotone. It still works, though.
Everyone in 'Wrecks, Lies and Video Tape', when they try to convince Pete to stop being a jerk.
In 'From Air to Eternity' when trying to fool Pete into thinking he's in danger, (which ends up being true anyway, eventually) PJ uses a mixture of emotionless monotone and lines that sound completely sarcastic (but aren't meant to). Much like the 'Slightly Dinghy' example, it still works.
Bait-and-Switch Comment: In "Dr. Horatio's Magic Orchestra," Peg says stealing the instruments from Goofy is the lowest Pete's ever sunk. Goofy says Peg is not being fair to Pete... because "he's sunken much lower, hundreds of times, thousands of times."
Balloon Belly: Goofy gets one in "The Incredible Bulk."
Bear Hug: Played rather darkly in "Good Neighbor Goof." Pete gives one to PJ but it's hardly affectionate—it's all part of manipulating him into doing nearly interminable can crushing so that he won't be able to hang out with Max. PJ's relationship with his father is summed up nicely by him looking very uncomfortable but not squirming, and wobbling helplessly over his boots once Pete lets go.
Beauty Is Never Tarnished: In "Window Pains" all three adult characters fall from a great height. Pete is in a full-body cast, Goofy has both legs in casts all the way up, and Peg... has her arm in a sling.
Being Watched: In "Come Fly with Me," PJ tells Max that it might be a bad idea to keep playing on Pete's computer because it seemed like he was watching them. While Max dismisses the notion as instilled paranoia, PJ doesn't know how right he was—Pete was right behind them... as a fly.
Berserk Button: Okay, so he doesn't exactly go berserk, but Max consistently, and always, hates it when somebody tells him he looks/acts/talks just like his dad.
Beware the Nice Ones: Despite being honest and kind, PJ has shown on several episodes that it's not wise to make him angry. Also Peg, who can punch out guys twice her size.
Big Eater: Pete, whose eating habits are the focus of both "To Catch a Goof" and "As Goof Would Have It", as well as a major part of "Gymnauseam". Also PJ, which is usually expressed through short jokes:
Pete: 200 burgers? Must've been all those times I sent him to bed without seconds! Peg: I'm worried about PJ. He barely touched his third helping...
Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: The second part of Pete's breakdown in "Axed By Addition" features him feeling guilty for making PJ do more chores and then mentioning that he sent PJ to obedience school for not cleaning his room. When combined with the last bits of his Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking, this sounds even worse.
Brick Joke: In "Close Encounters of the Weird Mime", Peg finds Pete to tell him about the "aliens" that have invaded the city and is carrying a plate of foil-wrapped potatoes half-way through the episode. Once the Petes begin to defend their house from the "aliens", the potatoes are forgotten, only for Pete to find them at the end, mistake them for alien eggs, and smash them.
Pistol: Oh, so that's how you make mashed potatoes!
Brutal Honesty: PJ is surprisingly blunt about the quality of Max's performance in "Talent to the Max", though this may have been because he didn't want Max to be humiliated at the real talent show.
The Bully: There are several bullies that show up in the series to torment Max, PJ, and/or other kids. Most of them are only in one episode, though Leech is in a couple.
Call Back: Plucking dog hair out of the carpet with tweezers—Pete said he made PJ do it "one time" in "Axed By Addition", but evidently it was more than once, since the task was referenced as something PJ currently needed to do in two later episodes.
Calling the Old Man Out: PJ is a bit too meek to confront Pete directly, but he certainly was willing to do it indirectly in "From Air to Eternity." PJ, with Max's help, tricks Pete into confessing to lying about being afraid of heights, after Pete spends the episode causing him serious anguish based on that lie. During the confession PJ pretends to be surprised, but does not shy away from shaming his father when the "new information comes to light."
The Cat Came Back: In "Cabana Fever", Pete saves his boat and saves Goofy's life in the process and then Goofy follows him around, stowing away in his trunk and eating all his snack food, saying he can't leave until he saves Pete's life. Pete begins pretending to be in danger so that Goofy can "save" him, but by the end of the episode Goofy does manage to save Pete from the DeterminatorThreatening Shark.
Pete ends a lot of his sentences with an exclamation of "See!?" He also has the extremely loudly yelled "PJ!"
PJ, being The Drag Along, will often say either "I don't know, Max" or "I don't know about this, Max", sometimes substituting "man" for "Max."
Cast of Snowflakes: The main characters who are intended to physically take after one another already have different faces and head shapes, and there is significant variance in both the show and movies in how even background characters' ears and faces are shaped, how their bodies are shaped, skin, hair, and even how anthropomorphized the Petting Zoo People are and what animal characteristics they retain.
Cats Are Mean: Pete was originally a cat. [1] This would explain why he is antagonistic to the main dog face character.
Goofy's jar of fresh air from "A Goof Of The People".
Peg's very intense bargain coffee from "Close Encounters of the Weird Mime".
Chekhov's Skill: Or rather, Chekhov's Lack of Skill; Goofy's misunderstanding of how much popcorn to make in "Cabana Fever" ends up saving him and Pete from a volcano and a determined shark.
The Chew Toy: Everyone is this to some extent, but Pete is the biggest example.
Childhood Memory Demolition Team: In "Tee for Two," Pete wants to tear down the miniature golf course which upsets everyone else in the cast because they had fond memories there. It turns out that the reason Pete wanted to tear it down in the first place is because his memories of it were not so fond.
Christmas Episode: Have Yourself a Goofy Little Christmas (A Goof Troop Christmas).
Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Coupe Hatchback, Max and PJ's new friend, disappears without further mention after one episode, as does Rose Deckenbloom, PJ's crush.
Class Reunion: One where everyone should get an award in "Meanwhile, Back at the Ramp." Goofy has not done anything award worthy... except for being a Good Parent.
In one episode, PJ found out that his father was spying on Goofy & Max, and setting traps throughout a race course in order to win a race. PJ then tries his best to deactivate all of his father's traps so that Max and Goofy would be able to win, but fails and is found out by Max, who accuses PJ of cheating without listening to anything he says. He still helps them to win, and subtly reveals that Pete had been spying on them. Max realizes that PJ hadn't betrayed him, and apologizes for not believing him at first.
Pete's also been mistaken twice for a criminal; first time he was kidnapped by robbers but the police thought he was in on the crime, second time he was mistaken for a notorious burglar and arrested.
Cold Turkeys Are Everywhere: "To Catch a Goof" has Pete trying to go 17 hours without eating. He starts to hallucinate that the food in his kitchen is talking to him and that his children are food.
Come Back My Pet: In one comic, Pete replaces his dog with a cardboard robot guard dog after their house gets robbed. Turns out "Card" is actually programmed to let its creator in to rob the house again.
Comedic Sociopathy: Goofy is almost completely unaware of how much trouble his own cluelessness and clumsiness causes Pete.
Competence Zone: 11-year-old boys are significantly less insane than their fathers. Even if Max isn't completely rational, he certainly is compared to Goofy. And though Pete's not a Cloudcuckoolander, PJ has more common sense than the other three boys combined. Max and Pete are in the closest proximity for their sanity, but Max edges Pete out without much trouble.
Compressed Vice: Goofy is randomly a Big Eater in "The Incredible Bulk." This is never brought up again. Strangely, the characters who are more consistently played as Big Eaters are astonished by Goofy's appetite.
Conjunction Interruption: Pete uses it against PJ in "Good Neighbor Goof" when he tries to protest being forbidden from seeing Max based on the faulty assumption that Max is exactly like Goofy.
Conspicuously Light Patch: The most obvious example is when Pete is shoving his competition into a locker in "Mrs. Spoonerville."
Consummate Liar: Pete, even though he often gets found out, eventually.
Convection Schmonvection: Pete manages to go into an active volcano in "Peg o' the Jungle" and, while getting out again is portrayed as difficult for him due to his fear of heights, this is the biggest problem the characters see. There's also a volcano in "Cabana Fever" that does actually cook something... but not the characters dangerously close to the lava.
Cooking Duel: Goofy and Pete; figuratively and literally. From collecting garbage to actual cooking.
Corrupt Corporate Executive: Mr. Sludge in "A Goof of the People" is a parody of this trope, who happily partakes in over the top illicit business deals while running a factory that makes money just by pumping out waste into Spoonerville, and he can never remember his only employee's name.
Counterfeit Cash: In "In Goof We Trust", Goofy found a counterfeit 20 dollar bill. The plot of "Counterfeit Goof" revolved around Goofy's Criminal Doppelgänger and the counterfeiting gang.
Criminal Doppelgänger: One episode involved Goofy being an exact lookalike for a member of a counterfeiting gang.
Damned by Faint Praise: In "The Good, the Bad, and the Goofy", Goofy decides to give Pete a compliment. The compliment in question?
Goofy: Pete's a swell kinda guy, once you get past his personality!
Dancing Theme: The footage in the opening that isn't taken from the episodes themselves.
A Day in the Limelight: Occasional episodes focus on Peg or Pistol, including "Window Pains", "Goofin' Up the Social Ladder", and "Peg o' the Jungle" for the former, and "Hot Air", "Three Ring Bind", and "Pistolgeist" for the latter.
Death Glare / Kubrick Stare: Max and PJ both show the former in the Goof Troop episode "Waste Makes Haste", when Pete reveals the real objective of their recycling gig with Goofy: Unbeknownst to the other three, Pete was scavenging for a pair of missing golden baby shoes, with the intent of returning them to the owner for a hefty reward. PJ, however, gives an uncharacteristically frightening variation of the latter.
Demoted to Extra: Despite Goof Troop having Max, PJ, Goofy and Pete all getting equal attention, the films are mostly about Max, and, to a slightly lesser extent, Goofy. In An Extremely Goofy Movie, PJ gets more screentime, but Pete appears for about four minutes.
Denied Food as Punishment: Downplayed in "Axed By Addition" where Pete mentions that PJ is probably interested in eating 200 Gorilla Burgers because of all the times he sent him to bed without seconds.
Department of Child Disservices: In "Date with Destiny", Max has to move in with the Petes because life with Goofy is too unstable, which means that he had two bad nights, one of which was spent writing a report, and the other of which wasn't even Goofy's fault to begin with. (It was Pete's). And yet... no one thinks to look into PJ's situation. Ever.
Depending on the Artist: In some episodes, PJ has buck teeth. In others, he doesn't. Also, the show staff and the movie staff don't seem to agree on how hairy Pete and PJ's bodies are, nor do the show staff seem to agree with each other about Goofy and Max's.
Depraved Dentist: Subverted in "Clan of the Cave Goof." It looks like the dentist has a four-foot-long drill that he plans to use on cave Pete, but it turns out to be a watering can shaped like a four-foot-long drill, and the dentist is a competent, compassionate professional.
Did You Think I Can't Feel?: In "O R-V I N-V U," Max ends up partnered with Pete on an RV project, and ignores PJ without noticing that he feels lonely and inferior as a result, expecting him to do favors and run errands for them. This exchange occurs roughly two-thirds of the way through the episode:
Max: Hey, Peej. Take my picture in front of the RV, okay?
PJ: Take it yourself!
Max: What's bugging you?
PJ: You! If you want to be the son in this family, I'll just move out.
Diet Episode: "To Catch a Goof", where Pete has to go seventeen hours without eating; "Gymnauseam", where Pete has to go on a diet and exercise more; and "As Goof Would Have It" where Pete pretends to go on a diet.
Disproportionate Retribution: In "Dr. Horatio's Magic Orchestra," Pete decides the appropriate punishment for PJ whistling two bars of a song is to threaten to permanently disfigure his lips. Used to indicate just how much Pete hates the song, since he usually doesn't engage in any (intentional) physical harm at all, and Peg does tell him he's out of line.
Diving Save: PJ does this to prevent Max from being hit by a moving bus in "Big City Blues" and from being caught in the crossfire of an exploding barbecue in "Where There's Smoke, There's Goof."
Do They Know It's Christmas Time?: The Christmas special is one of the only times in the entire series any religion is mentioned at all, although there's a line in "Max-Imum Insecurity" and one in "Fool's Gold" that suggest the characters are monotheistic.
Don't Look Down: Played for laughs usually, though played seriously for sympathy in "From Air to Eternity".
Dramatic Irony: Many, many episodes run on this. Just a few examples: In "Slightly Dinghy", Max doesn't know that Goofy found the quarter he was looking for even though the audience did before they went on the trip. In "And Baby Makes Three" the audience is aware early on that Peg is selling an expensive house and is planning to spend the profits on her family, but the entire cast (even Pete) is convinced she's having a baby.
Duck Season, Rabbit Season: Max and PJ argue over whose turn it is to be the pilot (neither of them want it) in "Hot Air" and Max pulls this trick on PJ after Pistol interrupts their argument.
Dumpster Dive: In "Big City Blues", it is revealed that Buster and his friends often eat things they find in the dumpster, which prompts Max and PJ to give him bags of groceries from their houses. In "Puppy Love", PJ dives into a dumpster to retrieve Rose's poem which she had thrown away.
Dysfunctional Family: The Pete family. Pete is very selfish and not infrequently abuses PJ and spoils Pistol when he's not neglecting both of them; PJ is frequently shown to be intimidated by Pete (though the degree changes, sometimes having him outright afraid and sometimes having him casually snarking at Pete's mistakes), and is fairly disillusioned with Pete and impatient to leave home, Pistol is a Bratty Half-Pint who's always getting on PJ and Peg's nerves, and Peg is often yelling at Pete for being a jerk or Pistol for being naughty. When PJ is in focus, and occasionally when he's not, it's played more like a Big Screwed-Up Family.
Establishing Character Moment: Peg's character is summed-up perfectly in her introductory scene, where she's cheerfully welcoming Goofy back while at the same time yelling at Pistol to put down the worm she's trying to eat.
Pete and Goofy, although neither one is particularly the Straight Man, but Pete is closer. In "As Goof Would Have It", Pete exploits this to try to win money for "losing 180 pounds." This works about as well as is expected.
PJ and Max, although both of them play off of each other in a sort of mutual Straight Man and Wise Guy partnership. In an Inversion of the typical roles, PJ is far more cynical than Max is.
Outside of the main cast, Those Two Bad Guys Spud and Wally also fulfill this role when they show up, though they are minor enough it's not very clear what their roles are, but it appears to follow the show's standard "fat guy is straight(er) man" pattern.
Financial Abuse: Pete seems to think giving PJ two percent of the profits on his can crushing and paying him and Max five cents for twelve hours of work is fair and reasonable. He also is willing to trick PJ into doing his job for a day just so that his profits don't dip and use his children as free advertising, as well as repeatedly spending their savings on himself.
Fire Breathing Diner: Double Subverted in "Good Neighbor Goof." Pete overapplies hot sauce to Goofy's omelette hoping to invoke this, but Goofy is unaffected and even wants more hot sauce. Then Pete takes a bite and his mouth catches on fire so hard he ends up using all the water in his pool to extinguish the flames.
Fly Crazy: "Come Fly with Me" has a fly annoying Pete, and then Pete as a fly annoying everyone, although all he was trying to do was get their attention.
Foils: Most combinations of characters are this to some degree, but Max and PJ, and Goofy and Pete, are the most obvious.
Force Feeding: In "Axed By Addition", Max straps PJ to a device that feeds him whether he gets a math question right, and hits him in a face with an egg when he's wrong
Four-Fingered Hands: Lampshaded in "Good Neighbor Goof" where after hitting his thumb with a hammer, Goofy says, "Oh, well, still got seven more good ones left!" And then proceeds to hit even more fingers.
Four Philosophy Ensemble: Max, who doesn't worry about consequences and comes up with all the plans, is the optimist. Pete, who is overtly antagonistic and gripes about everything, is the cynic. PJ, who is skeptical but willing to try the plans, is the realist. And Goofy, who is completely oblivious to most of what is happening, is the apathetic.
Furry Confusion: As per usual with Disney's Funny Animal cartoons... Notably, the two main families include dogs with a pet cat and cats with a pet dog.
Furry Denial: The characters repeatedly refer to themselves either directly or indirectly as human, most blatantly with Pete mentioning "the human body" in "Bringin' on the Rain." They also give several indications that they do not identify with the species they were designed to be.
Tropes G-L
Gainaxing: Peg's breasts did this on a number of occasions.
Gentle Giant: PJ is what you get when the Gentle Giant is just 11 years old. He's not too bright, overdominated, insecure - and can bench-press 150lbs, punch out bullies and takes on most of his father's manual labour. He seems totally unaware of his own strength.
Gift Giving Gaffe: Double Subverted in "Max-Imum Insecurity." Pete surprised Peg with a power tool (while talking it up as something she would love) which made her very angry. Then later she found his "real" surprise of her favorite perfume. The perfume was stolen and she was never supposed to find it in the first place, so by the end of the episode she's just as mad as she was at the beginning.
Gilligan Cut: In "Slightly Dinghy", PJ does not want to go along with Max's plan to have him ask Pete to take them fishing. Combined with a Lampshade Hanging of his role as The Drag Along.
PJ: No, forget it, Max. No way. You cannot talk me into this one. (scene cuts) Every time. How does he do it? Every. Single. Time.
Glad I Thought of It: In "Fool's Gold," after Peg says they'll be rich, Pete says, "Not only that. We'll be rich!"
Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: Many variations on the trope have been played with throughout the series. Lampshaded in "All the Goof That's Fit to Print". Goofy says this when he attempts to grab a newspaper that just flew off the ledge of a tall building.
Goofy: This wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for gravity!
Grounded Forever: In "Axed By Addition" Pete threatens to ground PJ forever if he fails his math test, a threat the latter takes very seriously and even plays sick in order to get in one last day of freedom. Once Pete finds out the truth, he yells at PJ for not guessing he was bluffing... and then says he's grounded forever for that, though he has a change of heart when he finds out that PJ didn't even fail in the first place.
Hartman Hips: Peg, who is possibly the most bottom-heavy of any Disney female.
Haunted House: The ghosts inside don't want to stay but can't leave until they perform their show.
Heavy Sleeper: Peg is a subversion in "Goof Fellas." She sleeps through Goofy jackhammering the roof repeatedly, and Pete screaming for him to keep it down, but then wakes up to Pete making a tiny whimper and asks him to keep it down because she's trying to sleep.
Heterosexual Life Partners: Max and PJ are so close that they do pretty much everything they can together in both the show and the movies and seem to hate being separated. They boost each other up, tell each other the truth about themselves, and help each other out of tough situations. The few moments when they thought they might not be friends anymore, one or both of them would always put in a large amount of effort to make sure that they could stay friends. Then again, they did both have a Friendless Background.
Hypocritical Humor: In "Lethal Goofin'", Max berates Douglas for hiding behind Tooth and Nail's brawn, and using people bigger than he is to do his fighting for him... right before he tells PJ to "get 'em".
I Ate What?: Pete eats a slug to advertise his car lot in "Hot Air" and he ostensibly knows what it is... unfortunately, no one told him it was a real slug. He drinks nearly the entire water cooler afterwards.
I Gave My Word: PJ in "Tub Be or Not Tub Be." Which makes it almost impossible for him when he makes promises that end up conflicting. But he still keeps his word.
Identical Grandson: All past ancestors of Goofy and Pete look identical to them. Goofy's relatives all look alike, aside from Max and Debbie.
Idiot Ball: Usually Pete is a Manipulative Bastard and PJ the Only Sane Man, but in some episodes one or both of them seem almost as dumb as Goofy. "Come Fly with Me" is weird for having PJ act as the Only Sane Man in one scene ("Don't we need the instructions?") and carry the Idiot Ball later in the same episode ("He spelt it backwards", and trying to hit himself in the face with the manual). Max usually avoids the Idiot Ball, however.
If It Tastes Bad, It Must Be Good for You: Zig Zagged. In one episode, Peg puts Pete on a diet that involves a medication or supplement in the form of a granola bar. Pete fears the taste, but to humor his wife, he tastes one, and they're so good he goes through a week's worth in a single sitting. Peg informs him that they're supposed to be in addition to his three squares a day, and he wasn't supposed to eat more than three per day (this is confirmed by the label).
I'll Never Tell You What I'm Telling You: In "The Good, the Bad, and the Goofy", Goofy tells the kidnappers that he'll tell them where he lives but not where his "next door neighbor, Pete" lives.
Imaginary Friend: Inky, a character from one of Pistol's books, who turns out to be very real, and Pistol almost runs away with her.
Improbable Food Budget: Even though Pete is a used car salesman, it's still hard to believe they could afford all those huge breakfasts Peg cooks for him every morning.
In "Inspector Goofy" Pete (trying to get Goofy a job as a city inspector) claims he has "an open mind" by lifting up Goofy's ears and revealing you can see straight through.
In "Come Fly with Me" Pete, having been transformed into a fly is desperately trying to get Peg's attention and flies into one of her ears so she can hear him speaking. She can hear him, but unable to see where he is speaking from she tilts her head and Pete falls right out.
Pete(angry): Why, I'd recognize those tracks anywhere! PJ!
(Pete starts climbing up the stairs and the scene cuts to PJ's room)
PJ(frightened): Oh man, I'd recognize those footsteps anywhere! Dad!
It Runs in the Family: Despite Max being embarrassed by his dad, he is just as clumsy at times, and in the movie adopts his father's laugh. Even though PJ is a lot more honest and kind than his father, he still can sell cars just as well. Also, every male member of the Pete family has a phobia of heights.
Pete is always a Jerkass, but "Bringin' on the Rain" shows him as worse than usual. He generally will pick and choose which one of Goofy and PJ to torment in a significant way (if either)—in this episode he does both at the same time. He is also crueller to both of them than usual and has no remorse at all in the entire episode. He only eventually relents about Goofy's treatment once caught, and callously acknowledges PJ's as if it weren't a problem twice (to which the Mickey Mousing facial expressions intentionally draw attention).
PJ carries one in "Queasy Rider." Generally speaking, he isn't the type to laugh at innocent victims of humiliation, especially not his best friend, but in this episode he does. He also has almost no patience for Max being rude to him before pranking him, while he's ordinarily very tolerant.
Jerkass Façade: In "Puppy Love", Pete gives PJ some well-meant (but still unhelpful) advice about how to attract a girl: dress like a biker and be as obnoxious and rude as possible. He tries this, and it fails to do anything except get him attacked by a school bully.
Just Eat Gilligan: Many episodes' problems could have been solved if Pete just stayed as FAR AWAY as possible from Goofy. Episode 58 comes to mind as the most prominent example.
Kissing Cousins: Downplayed. Max seemed a little too happy to see his cousin, Debbie, and says that "she's hotter than any babe in the Pharaoh's (gang)". He later pretended to date her as part of a plan to eat at a fast food restaurant, despite the fact that PJ could easily have done it.
Lampshade Hanging: In "Goofin' Up the Social Ladder", Goofy remarks that he gets along well with dogs, and is almost viewed as one of the family. Obviously, this is a reference to how odd it is that Goofy looks like a dog but acts like a human, and is seen by some viewers as the "missing link" between dog and human.
Laser-Guided Karma: Pete is punished by the universe for every transgression without fail, unless the people he harmed take revenge on him—"And Baby Makes Three" is a perfect example of the latter. Lampshaded in "Fool's Gold."
Last Name Basis: Due to the Repetitive Names on this show, it's unclear whether Pete and Goofy call each other by their last names or shortened versions of their first names.
Lethal Chef: Don't eat Goofy's "Goofy Burgers". You'll regret it.
Lethally Stupid: Goofy. Pete is sometimes terrified by him for this reason.
Like You Were Dying/Mistaken for Dying: In "Terminal Pete", Pete believes that he only has a few hours to live after hearing from the doctor about his "terminal illness", and so he needs to spend the last hours of his life playing stuntman. However, the "terminal illness" thing turns out to be a joke, made up by the doctor and played out when Pistol's gopher had snuck into the sheets where Pete was lying on when the X-ray picture was taken.
Limited Wardrobe: Pete and PJ may sometimes remove their jackets, but for the most part everyone wears the same thing all of the time, with some exceptions.
Look Behind You: The common subversion occurs in "Sherlock Goof." Pete's character, Prof. Inferiority, snags his net on the side of his tub filled with a dangerous solvent intended to kill Sherlock Goof. Sherlock tries to warn him, he doesn't listen, and the solvent gets poured all over the room.
Max uses this to aid PJ in both "Everything's Coming Up Goofy" and "Close Encounters of the Weird Mime." In the former, he resorts to asking PJ if Pete forbade him from playing with his tank on the walls and ceiling after he said pretty much every ground in existence was expressly forbidden. In the latter, Pete says PJ is not allowed to move the VCR, but Max notices he didn't say they couldn't plug into it.
PJ himself uses this when he accidentally made contradictory promises in "Tub Be or Not Tub Be." He pointedly never actually tells Max and Goofy that Pete was cheating even when directly asked for confirmation. He just makes it impossible to draw any other conclusion by conspicuously knocking the camera out of his hat.
Loser Son of Loser Dad: When he's being particularly cynical Pete seems to consider Max an example, at one point telling Max that he's "just a carbon copy of your old man anyway, a Goof!"
Love at First Sight: PJ falls in love with Rose Deckenbloom as soon as he sees her reading poetry.
Tropes M-R
Made of Iron: Falling from great height does little damage.
The Mafia: In "Counterfeit Goof", Goofy is mistaken for a member. They also appear in "Goof Fellas" and want Goofy and Pete killed for thwarting them.
Malicious Slander: The magic hat in "Talent to the Max" convinces Max that PJ is trying to steal his act, even going so far as to briefly possess him to "prove" it. Why? Because PJ was trying to convince Max that the hat was bad news, which he was only more sure of after Max accused him of doing something he couldn't remember doing. Max tells PJ he'd rather dump him than the hat.
Meat O Vision: In "To Catch a Goof", Pete sees his children as food. In "Gymnauseam", he sees everything as food.
Men Can't Keep House: In "Mrs. Spoonerville", which is about Pete and Goofy joining a housekeeping contest, this is played straight with Pete, who is so bad at housework he bribes his children to do it for him, and averted with Goofy, who is shown to be highly skilled in the field of domesticity.
Mickey Mousing: Often used even to signal changes in facial expressions.
Missing Mom: Max's mom. One line in the entire series states that she "is up there amongst the stars". This would suggest that she is dead, making Goofy a widower. Goofy. Her absence is made even more telling by how Max's best friend has a very prominent Mom. And how several episodes (like "Date with Destiny") manage to draw attention to Goofy being a single father while not mentioning Max's mother at all.
Mistaken for Badass: Goofy was once known as "the Skull". Though apparently nobody knew it was short for numbskull.
Mistaken for Murderer: In "For Pete's Sake", Pete reads a letter from Goofy and thinks that Goofy is out to kill him. It turns out that Goofy was getting him a new hedge clipper in place of the one that Pete had accidentally broken; and that Pete had torn open the envelope, and the letter, improperly.
Mistaken for Pregnant: Peg, in And Baby Makes Three, which came as a slight surprise to Pete.
Mood Whiplash: "Good Neighbor Goof" is full of this. First, there's the scene where PJ forgets he doesn't have a balcony immediately followed by Pete yelling at him and forbidding him from seeing Max, played absolutely straight. Then PJ delivers one of the most depressing lines in the entire series, only to have that lead into a mild slapstick scene. Then there's the scene where the rules are set up in both houses, which juxtaposes the image of an obviously terrified PJ with Goofy telling Max "never stick peas up your nose."
The Movie: A Goofy Movie and its sequel, An Extremely Goofy Movie are spin-offs from the series, taking place years later (the latter of which, when Max is 18 years old and attending college).
Muck Monster: Mr. Sludge in "A Goof of the People" is a combination of a Muck Monster and a Corrupt Corporate Executive. Later in the episode, the toxic waste Sludge places in Goofy's garage to ruin his name ends up forming a much more traditional Muck Monster. The Muck Monster is defeated by Goofy's jar of fresh air, which also clears Mr. Sludge of the toxic waste on his body, making him have a change of heart.
Mundane Fantastic: A show about characters and relationships in a mundane modern setting also randomly contains at various points sapient horns, an evil magic hat that is capable of hexing people, ghosts, a real imaginary friend from outer space, fire-breathing dinosaurs, trucks and bullets with faces, multiple Bigfoots, Frankenstein's Monster, a zombie, and a character turning into a fly. None of this is ever explained, and the characters just roll with it. It's to the point that the main conflict of the episode with the evil magic hat is an Acquired Situational NarcissismFeud Episode.
Peg and Pistol are named after two of Pete's nicknames in the Classic Disney Shorts - Peg-Leg Pete (evil pirate) and Pistol Pete (evil cowboy).
Whenever a character learns how to do something from a book, there's a brief segment in the style of Goofy's classic "How To" shorts, narrated by a dapper sounding Interactive Narrator. And on that note...
Negative Continuity: Goofy and Pete's houses, as well as Pete's Boat, get damaged or destroyed frequently, but they are always back to normal by the next episode. Goofy also became mayor once, and then it was never mentioned again.
Never Say "Die": Almost always averted—the words "dead", "die", and "kill" are actually used a lot. However, in "Bringin' on the Rain", Pete does try to avoid using the word "die" when describing his bogus condition. This is Played for Laughs, however, because Goofy is being Literal-Minded.
Nice Hat: Played with physically, but averted personality wise with Max's magic hat.
Nightmare Sequence: In "Max-Imum Insecurity", Max has a nightmare about going to jail for Leech's stolen perfume bottle. PJ says he had a similar dream but his is not actually shown.
Pete: Can we get the bunny with the bent ear, ma-ma?
Noodle Incident: In "Dr. Horatio's Magic Orchestra," PJ backs Goofy's Bait-and-Switch Comment up, mentioning the "incident with the earless monkey," which, apparently, they all agreed off-screen to never bring up again.
Not Now, Kiddo: Pete, frequently with PJ, sometimes with Pistol.
Not So Different: Pete and Max loathe each other most of the time, but they have more in common with each other than with anyone else on the show: they're both ambitious leaders, fairly self-centered and prone to using other people as means to an end, and far better at coming up with ideas than thinking them through. They'd never admit it though—except in "O R-V, I N-V U" where they end up bonding so well that a Why Are You Not My Son situation arises.
Not-So-Innocent Whistle: PJ does this in "Cabana Fever" when Peg finds that Pistol has been placed in the back of the car with the luggage and after Pistol makes it impossible for people not to know he (accidentally) did it using a Shaped Like Itself accusation.
Obnoxious In-Laws: Peg's uncle, Bob Sparrowhawk. Loved by PJ. Disliked greatly by Pete. Whilst Bob isn't actually deliberately mean to Pete, he makes things hard for him.
Off Model: Walt Disney Japan was the only studio to draw PJ with large buck teeth. The other studios either downplayed this visual trait or removed them entirely and gave PJ human-style teeth. Otherwise this trope's a given due to the amount of animation studios involvednote The animation studios include the aforementioned WDAJ, Animal Ya, Tama Productions, Wang Film Productions, Kennedy Cartoons, Sunwoo Entertainment, Moving Images International, the Walt Disney Animation Units in Australia and France and Guimares Productions.
Out-of-Character Alert: The monster in "Frankengoof" looks very similar to Pete. His family eventually decides that it's not actually Pete because he's too nice and too willing to take responsibility.
Out of Order: Toon Disney and other syndicated channels aired the two-part pilot as episodes 33 and 34—giving the odd effect of having people who have known each other forever meet and learn about each other, and having Pete (briefly) learn about a problem with his habitual behavior in the "first" episode.
Paper-Thin Disguise: PJ dresses as a baby in "And Baby Makes Three". Despite the fact that he's a very overweight 11-year-old with fully developed teeth (which Pete found out the hard way), and that PJ "mysteriously vanished" until Max came up with the excuse several minutes later that he was at the store, Pete doesn't realize that the baby is PJ. He says the baby looks like PJ ("back when he was cute") and comments on how absurdly big he is, but that's about it.
Parental Favoritism: Pistol is Daddy's little girl, whereas Pete has called PJ a peasant to his face.
Parental Incest: Downplayed in Puppy Love. PJ going on a pretend date... with his own mother... As part of a plan to get another girl to like him, but still weird.
He's surprisingly kind to PJ in "Puppy Love," and doesn't have the "one of us is dying" excuse he usually does. Unfortunately, all the nice things he does end up hindering PJ anyway... though by accident.
A more successful version happens in "Tee for Two" where he gives a trophy to a kid who tried and failed at mini-golf. Peg gives him a big kiss for this one.
PJ does this in "Axed By Addition" so that he doesn't have to go to school on what he believes will be his last day of freedom ever. Max actually makes him look very sick because Pete is strict about what counts as sick enough to stay home, which results in him being taken to the hospital and Pete realizing (for the span of fifteen minutes) that he's a bad parent.
Pete does this himself in "To Heir Is Human" so that he can take the day off from work fishing. Pete is his own boss, but he doesn't want to lose the profits for the day, so he tricks PJ into doing his job for him by pretending he's sick and telling PJ that Peg, Pistol, and Chainsaw will be stuck doing bad jobs if he doesn't succeed. When PJ tearfully presents the proceeds to Peg and tells her what he was told, this plan backfires.
Please, I Will Do Anything!: PJ didn't perhaps need to grovel at Max's feet in this way in "Axed By Addition" to get him to go through with his "drastic measures" to help him study, but he did. And regretted it shortly thereafter.
Poor Communication Kills: PJ's main problem in "Tub Be Or Not Tub Be". A rare in-character example, since PJ is usually timid and unsure and Max is often a bad listener.
Pete does this to PJ in "Winter Blunderland" when he tries to call him out on his hypocrisy for spending a lot of money on a ski trip after refusing to pay him and Max for shoveling snow. He even carries PJ away from the scene to shut him up because he doesn't want Goofy to know he has an ulterior motive for the ski trip.
Pete also does it to Pistol in "Mrs. Spoonerville" because he doesn't want the judges to know the only reason she's helping him with the housework is because he promised to pay her fifty dollars. Unfortunately for him, he's less successful this time.
Max does it to PJ in "Max-imum Insecurity" because PJ is screaming very loudly and Max doesn't want him to wake up the whole town.
PJ does it to Pistol in "Puppy Love" to prevent her from telling Pete about his crush on Rose. When caught, he says he's "helping her swallow her dessert."
Pygmalion Snap Back: What happens when Pete tries to hypnotize Goofy in "In Goof We Trust".
Quirky Household: The Goof family. A single parent family with a clumsy idiot as the parent and a snarky, High School Hustler kid, their bond is phenomenally strong, shown especially well in "Date with Destiny" and "Meanwhile, Back at the Ramp."
Goofy attempts to read the manual and reads it completely wrong, ending up with predictable results. An example occurs in "Major Goof".
PJ wants to read the manual but no one else wants to, and so they convince him to ignore it. Invariably, it would have been a good idea to read it. An example occurs in "Come Fly With Me". A close variant occurs in "Where There's Smoke There's Goof", when PJ is the only one alarmed by a gauge.
Real Men Wear Pink: Pete has purple pajamas and pink bunny slippers. And the luxury sports car he wanted in one episode was colored Cherry Pink.
After PJ and Max locate the pipe sending the water from the Goof house to the Pete house in "Bringin' on the Rain", and Max notices that it's doing so, PJ asks:
PJ: Hey, what's that supposed to mean, Max, huh? Are you suggesting that my dad would do something unethical or dishonest!? (realization) 'Scuse me, for the sake of our friendship, don't answer that.
In "Slightly Dinghy", Max gets the bright idea to ask this question to try to convince PJ to ask Pete to take them fishing:
Max: Aww, Peej, fishing with your dad! What could be more fun?
PJ: Eating glass! You got any idea what fishing with him is like!?
Rotating Protagonist: The four male characters take turns being in the spotlight, sometimes more than one at a time, and the show's tone changes significantly depending on who is in focus.
Rube Goldberg Device: The soda dispenser at the beginning of "Clan of the Cave Goof."
Rule of Empathy: In stark contrast to the comical nature of the rest of the show, almost all of PJ's focus episodes are played entirely straight—highlighting just how scared/guilty/self-hating/lonely/resentful PJ feels as a result of his mistreatment. Then we get Pete as The Chew Toy...
Satellite Character: Depending on the episode, PJ and Pistol can just be there to agree with one of their parents and can be treated as one entity, typically disregarding all of the differences between their personalities and the way they're treated.
Scrabble Babble: In "Nightmare on Goof Street", Pete accuses Goofy of this: "If you're gonna make up a word, don't make up such a phony-sounding long one!" However, it's actually averted in that the word Goofy wanted to play is "sesquipedalian," which is defined accurately.
The Scream: PJ lets one in "Max-imum Insecurity" when he sees that the stolen perfume bottle that he and Max are hiding has gone missing; the camera cuts to space, where PJ's scream is loud enough to be heard from that far away.
In spite of the fact that it is established that Goofy had not seen Pete or Peg since graduation, and that Max and PJ first met at the age of eleven after Goofy returned to Spoonerville and moved in next door to the Petes, several episodes make references to Max growing up in Spoonerville. And in the Christmas special, Pete declares that every year Goofy wrecks stuff, although that should technically have been Goofy and Max's first Christmas in Spoonerville.
Not only that, but the episode "Have Yourself a Goofy Christmas" ("A Very Goofy Christmas") from the movie "Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas", which is said to chronologically precede the cartoon series, while featuring Goofy, Max and Pete as next-door neighbours, they live in two very different houses in a very different suburb than the houses and suburb featured in the series or in the movie(both the series and the movie feature different houses and suburb). And Max appears to be 5 years old at the time and Pete's wife and kids are nowhere to be found. And nothing implies Pete has a wife and kids, which he ought to have. One has to wonder how Goofy and Max ended up living from a suburban house to a trailer and then back to a suburban house again.
According to Episode 15 "Wrecks, Lies & Videotape", Goofy never had a decent vacation in his life. The movie averts this as it's revealed that Goofy's recent past generations took their sons fishing, by taking them across the country to Lake Destiny. Goofy appears to have lots of money as to not only take Max across the country and back, but to go to a carnival, fancy hotels or motels, buy somewhat expensive food, visit a cave, go to a baseball game and lots of other stuff all while traveling across the country.
In "Educating Goofy", Goofy has not finished grade school. But in "An Extremely Goofy Movie", he had gone to college for three years back in The Seventies, and just not finished it. "Educating Goofy" appears to be an anomaly in this regard, as several other episodes (including the pilot) allude to Goofy in high school.
A milder example is that in "Goofs of a Feather", PJ wonders how he's going to face his "friends" now that his dad's a "duck-killer". In "Goodbye, Mr. Goofy" PJ reveals that Max is the only friend he's ever had, which, considering his personality and how he behaved in "Good Neighbor Goof", is probably true (and Max knows that Pete is a Jerkass and that PJ isn't).
Pistol is portrayed inconsistently in regards to age (four, five, and six have all been stated) and grade (kindergarten and preschool have both been stated). The sexes of the family pets are also portrayed inconsistently, though generally speaking Waffles is male and Chainsaw is female.
Shaggy Dog Story: PJ has been the butt of these on multiple occasions. So has Pete but in those instances it was entirely his own fault.
"Axed By Addition", where Max talks PJ into Playing Sick so he can cut school. It was so he could have the best day of his life before being Grounded Forever for getting an F in math—and then it's revealed he got an A.
"Slightly Dinghy" where Max convinces an even-more-reluctant-than-usual PJ to ask Pete to go fishing with him so that he can find the treasure of the lake to afford a video game—and not only did Goofy already find the last quarter he needed (which the audience knew), there was also a Worthless Treasure Twist.
"Close Encounters of the Weird Mime", where Max talks PJ into making a video for his science project instead of building a crude model. PJ is surprisingly not very reluctant, though Max does use Pete's Exact Words to find a loophole after PJ gives up. Max accidentally ends up setting it to a satellite dish instead of recording a video, and after the entire town gets tricked into believing aliens were in town, and Max and PJ come up with a plan to fix it, PJ only has this to say:
PJ: I'm going to look for those ping-pong balls and start over.
"Unreal Estate", where Pete spends his contractor money on a gadget and works with Goofy to build the house—which works about as well as is expected. Then he finally manages to get the house exactly how it needs to be and then it's revealed the homebuyers only wanted the land.
"Goodbye Mr. Goofy" where Pete steals Goofy's mortgage money in an attempt to make him move out, it backfires, Pete spends the entire episode trying to give Goofy his money back after it was lost to no avail—and then it's revealed that it was in the ice cream maker the whole time.
Shaming The Mob: In an episode that involved a parody of Frankenstein's Monster that resembled Pete, Peg asked the angry mob just what the monster had done to them, any of them, that would warrant them trying to kill it. They couldn't think of a single reason to justify harassing the monster, and consented that what they were doing was shameful.
Shaped Like Itself: Who accidentally put Pistol in the car's trunk in "Cabana Fever"? "A certain someone whose initials are P.J."
Shockingly Expensive Bill: In "Bringin' on the Rain", the water bills are very expensive because of the drought. Pete decides to mooch hundreds of gallons of water off of Goofy which results in a bill of over $100,000. Goofy ends up being arrested for two life sentences (though eventually released once the judge finds out the truth) because he can't pay the bill.
Signs of Disrepair: Exaggerated in "Gun Fight at the Okie Doke Corral." The townsfolk all hang out at the "local salon", getting their hair done, manicures, etc. Goofy's ancestor wipes dirt off the windows revealing that it was actually supposed to be a saloon, and everybody cheers because they don't have to treat it like a salon anymore.
Subverted in "Fool's Gold". Pete actually has to think about what he prioritizes, money or his life, and looks like he's seriously choosing money, but then a second later he yells at Goofy for not saving him from drowning.
Played straight in "E=MC Goof." Pete chooses to go after his "space souvenirs"... toward the sun... instead of just being happy the rocket was going down to earth and we don't see him for the rest of the episode.
Skyward Scream: "...on account'a because I got conned by a couple of CONNNNNNNNNNS!!!!"
Slapstick Knows No Gender: Peg and Pistol usually manage to avoid the slapstick, but the same cannot be said for several female guest stars. In "Close Encounters of the Weird Mime", the female reporter takes a lot of comedic punishment.
Sleeping Dummy: A variation occurs in "Pistolgeist." Pistol has already left the house and Max impersonates her with a wig in bed so that PJ doesn't get in trouble for letting her.
Smart Ball: "Rally Round the Goof" has Pistol, a four-and-a-half-year-old girl, being able to convert to military time. Her intelligence for the most part is fairly ordinary for a child her age.
The So-Called Coward: Despite being very cautious of most things, PJ has stood up to bullies for Max, and leapt in front of a speeding truck to push Max out of the way when he was paralyzed with fear. PJ also leapt onto the back of a moving RV to rescue Max when he was kidnapped.
Social Services Does Not Exist: Averted in "Date with Destiny" where Max had to live with the Pete family for a short period of time, after his principal deemed that life with Goofy is too unstable (see Department of Child Disservices). But for the most part, this is played entirely straight, to the point that Pete can say or imply he is abusive in a courtroom or a hospital and not get looked into, despite the fact that PJ's warning signs are numerous and a few are not very subtle.
Something Completely Different: Plots can range from dealing with day-to-day school life, to finding fire breathing dinosaurs, to having real imaginary friends from outer space, to family reunions.
Spelling Bee: One in "Educating Goofy" where it is quickly whittled down to Max vs. Goofy after all the extras lose because they can't take the pressure or play out of turn (and PJ loses because Pete tells him to advertise the car lot instead of spelling the word). The game then continues for a very long time because Max and Goofy are both trying to let the other one win, and in the end Goofy only wins by accident.
Springtime for Hitler: Pete wins ownership of a racehorse who can't run, so he gives away shares of ownership in the horse to people who buy cars from his lot. He gives away more shares than he should, but figures its okay since the horse can't possibly win. Goofy ends up fixing the horse's foot, and unknowingly sabotages all of Pete's attempts to prevent it from winning.
Stab the Salad: Goofy was just using that chainsaw to cut down a loose tree branch.
Stout Strength: PJ in "Lethal Goofin'", also Pete on several occasions.
Straight Man and Wise Guy: Max and PJ typically serve this in some capacity, though who's who depends on the episode. As a pattern, PJ is more likely to be the straight man, and Max the wise guy, but in some episodes like "Great Egg-Spectations" the roles are reversed.
In "Good Neighbor Goof" Pete gives PJ "the family boots" (boots with heavily weighted cement soles). After PJ struggles to walk in them and falls down the stairs, Max arrives and asks, "Family boots, huh?"
In "Max-Imum Insecurity" PJ quickly apologizes to Leech for not having lunch money for him to beat out of him because it's Saturday. Max (who had fallen behind) does exactly the same thing after PJ flees.
Strong Family Resemblance: Aside from PJ's face and Max's head shape, they look like miniature versions of their fathers, while their personalities are completely different. This was lampshadedmany times in "Meanwhile, Back at the Ramp", much to Max's chagrin.
Survival Mantra: "It's only a game! It's only a game!" PJ first adopts this phrase when playing a virtual reality stunt game to help him cope with his fear of heights, and later uses it again when it's actually false... evidently it's reassuring enough that he manages to skydive unharmed, but not to calm him down when he's being carried away by a storm.
Temporary Bulk Change: In "As Goof Would Have It", Pete becomes the skinny one while Goofy becomes the fat one.
Tempting Fate: PJ uses the Rock Bottom version in "Big City Blues". Cue The Rain and PJ saying "There goes my future as a fortune teller..." In a more characteristically pessimistic variation, he asks "Whoa. What's gonna happen next?" in "Waste Makes Haste" to which Max responds, "You had to ask" when their boat starts springing leaks.
Thematic Theme Tune: The theme song definitely suggests that the show is about father/son and best friend relationships. At the same time, however, it has an Unreliable Narrator: the first line of the song is "Like father, like son," which is proven false almost instantly. In both houses. And as for the parts of the song about "best of friends forever", the Title Montage itself is not shy about juxtaposing it with blatant evidence that Pete does not reciprocate Goofy's feelings.
Theme Naming: The Pete family. Pistol and Peg are named after incarnations of Pete, and PJ shares his father's name.
Thirteen Is Unlucky: Played With in "Rally Round the Goof." Pete is superstitious but doesn't want anyone to know, so he joins the 13th annual race held on Friday the 13th, gets car 13 while his race starts at 1:00 pm (which Pistol mentions is 13:00) which also happens to be 13 minutes away from the scene this is all mentioned in, and his family and neighbors will be cheering him from row 13. He wins.
This Is My Side: When Pete thought that he owned half of Goofy's house.
This Is Reality: "This is a hospital, not a cartoon" in "Terminal Pete" "We're too good for TV, anyway" in "Close Encounters of the Weird Mime", and "they're just cartoon characters. They don't know any better" in "Buddy Building".
Those Two Bad Guys: Spud and Wally, the crooks who show up in "O R-V I N-V U", "Nightmare on Goof Street", and "The Good, The Bad, and the Goofy".
Title Montage: The theme song is accompanied by clips from various episodes of the show. There are actually two openings, though repeats tend to favor the latter one, which added clips from some later episodes like "Queasy Rider" (Goofy accidentally walking into a table of pizzas) and "Great Egg-Spectations" (Pete getting flamed by a dinosaur).
Title Sequence Replacement: All re-runs on Toon Disney used the second intro (see Title Montage above for more info). Inverted with the three-episode best-of DVD, though; the first intro*
which had two variations; the difference being the "rock guitar" part
is on that DVD.
Too Dumb to Live: Goofy on many MANY occasions, with "Goof Fellas" being the most extreme example; Goofy approaches a pair of Mafia henchmen, who are in the process of killing someone, because he thought they were tailors, which puts both his and Pete's lives in danger. Pete is this way at times too, considering how many occasions he purposefully includes Goofy in his schemes, despite all the problems he causes.
Trash of the Titans: Justified in "Waste Makes Haste"; the reason Pete and Goofy had garbage lying around is that they were sorting it for recycling purposes after Max and PJ were doing so at the beginning of the episode. Of course, Peg is not okay with it anyway.
Tuckerization: The town of Spoonerville is named after J. Michael Spooner, one of the layout designers for the show.
Twice Shy: Rose Deckenbloom from "Puppy Love" is just as much of a Shrinking Violet as PJ is (if not even more so, believe it or not). Thanks to Max, he is able to engineer a situation in which they can dance together, though Pete does make things harder for him (for once, not on purpose!). Eventually he manages to convince her that he likes her by showing that he had memorized her poem, which was... about being a Shrinking Violet. Birds of a Feather, indeed!
Understatement: In "You Camp Take It with You", Peg says that an entire steak is "much too big a bite" for Chainsaw to eat.
Unreliable Narrator: The singer of the theme song. Also, Pete in "Pete's Day at the Races" who describes both saddened resignation and anger as happiness in regards to his family with the horse, and Max in "Leader of the Pack" who tells PJ his cousin Debbie tried to kill him as a baby, and then later denies it.
Verbal Backpedaling: In "Tub Be or Not Tub Be", Pete lets slip that he has cheated with booby traps while yelling at PJ, who looks entirely too smug when his father is forced into doing this.
Vitriolic Best Buds: Goofy and Pete are buds of the one-sided vitriol variety, with Pete being antagonistic and hateful of Goofy, while Goofy is genial and well-meaning.
Welcome Episode: The two-part pilot "Forever Goof" ("Everything's Coming Up Goofy"/"Good Neighbor Goof") features the Goof family moving in next door to the Pete family.
“Well Done Son” Guy: PJ's relationship with his dad Pete can be described as this.
What Happened to the Mouse?: A couple of times characters have been put into this situation. Obviously nothing happened to them since they're in all subsequent episodes (because they're the stars), but still weird, and a tad eerie.
Towards the end of "Unreal Estate", Goofy gets catapulted into the mountains, and that's the last we see of him for the rest of the episode.
In "E=MC Goof" Pete exits the rocket toward the sun to go after his "space souvenirs" and that's also the last we see of him for the rest of the episode.
White Gloves: PJ, Max, Pete and Goofy (although PJ has been seen without them whilst wearing some outfits).
Who Is Driving: In "Hot Air": who is flying? Goofy, of course! Wait, he's hanging onto the edge of the plane just like Max and Pete are.
Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: The clown in "Hot Air" finds Pistol's name ridiculous, and mistakenly calls her "Rifle." When corrected, he responds, "I don't care if it's Bazooka!"
Why Are You Not My Son: In "O R-V I N-V U," Pete compliments Max on his insight saying Max reminds him of himself and openly asking why PJ can't be more like Max. He was probably unaware that PJ was listening in on that particular conversation, but later in the episode he blatantly rejects PJ in favor of Max repeatedly. Generally speaking, however, Pete's relationship with Max is just as bad as his relationship with PJ.
With Friends Like These: Zig Zagged. It often appears that Max is getting a lot more out of his friendship with PJ than PJ is (loyalty, understanding, and good advice vs. selfishness, impatience, and persuasion into trouble), but there are also several points in the series where Max is a very kind and caring friend, and he puts so much effort into their friendship in the pilot that PJ's Undying Loyalty can be justified on that alone.
Worthless Treasure Twist: "Slightly Dinghy" with its worth "less than nothing" lake treasure, and to a lesser extent the inheritance in "Where There's a Will, There's a Goof" which turned out to be a quartet of unusual sea animals.
You Are Grounded: Pete grounds PJ often, and threatened to ground him for life if he failed his Math test.
Your Size May Vary: Peg's proportions fluctuated a lot. In "Fool's Gold" she was able to fit through a small basement window with no problems, but in "Goofin' Up the Social Ladder" she struggled to fit through a gate with bars about 20 inches apart.
2 reviews 