Goofy arrives home exhausted, barely able to crawl to his chair. After reading a magazine ad for a bodybuilding course, he orders a home gym kit, complete with a recording of a fitness instructor, and proceeds to get in shape. This being Goofy, however, things soon descend into chaos.
Notably, this short was featured on Who Framed Roger Rabbit as the cartoon playing on the theater where Roger and Eddie Valiant are hiding out (despite the fact that it premiered two years after the film's 1947 setting).
Goofy Gymnastics contains examples of:
- Accidental Pervert: As Goofy crashes through the window of his apartment and flies over several stories, he grabs the windowsill of another apartment. Then a woman screams, calls him a masher, and hits him with her shoe
. - Agony of the Feet: When Goofy puts the weights of the barbell back together, one of the weights lands on his foot. The pain wears off quickly.
- Butt-Monkey: Goofy is hit hard with plenty of hijinks in this cartoon. He trips over the barbell; he has trouble lifting the barbell; he gets his hands and feet trapped in the barbell weights◊; he rides on the barbell like a wheel with his caveman cloak falling over his head; he holds the the barbell over his head only for a fly to land on it and send him crashing through floors◊; he gets tangled in stretching cables; he is sent flying all over the place by various exercise equipment crashing through a window, and then a wall.
- Close Up On Head: When Goofy does chin-ups, the camera pulls back to show that the bar is moving up and down, while Goofy is standing still. Also a Bait-and-Switch moment.
- Cranial Eruption: Goofy gets one after the chin-up bar falls on his head. He then pushes down the bump, transferring it to his arm.
- Flexing Those Non-Biceps: Goofy fails to match up with the muscle chart, no matter how hard he tries. One attempt to flex has the bump on his arm refusing to stay still, moving from one arm to the other and ending up on his nose. In another, he has to transfer a Cranial Eruption to even get a meager bump.
- Floorboard Failure: Because of the fly adding weight to the barbell he is lifting over his head, the floor gives way and Goofy goes crashing through many floors.
- Impact Silhouette: Goofy leaves one in the wall he crashes through by the end of the cartoon. When crashing back into his apartment, Goofy busts the muscle chart out of the wall making look like he built his muscular physique.
- Instant Costume Change: After setting up his gym equipment in his apartment, Goofy takes his caveman cloak and walks behind his dressing panel still wearing his more formal clothing. Within a second, he walks out from behind the panel suddenly dressed in his gym clothes.
- Instant Home Delivery: Goofy fills out the coupon for the home gym set. Just as he puts the letter and coupon in a mailbox to make his mail order, a whirring sound is heard from inside the mailbox. Then the package for the gym set emerges from the mailbox, much to Goofy’s surprise and delight.
- The Last Straw: After Goofy finally gets the barbell up, a fly lands on one weight, causing the floor to buckle underneath. As the fly then marches across the barbell, the entire floor gives way, sending Goofy falling through several stories.
- The Man in the Mirror Talks Back: While being tossed around the apartment by his equipment, Goofy stops before his mirror. As a recoiling cable pulls Goofy back, his mirror reflection comes to life and merely waves without speaking.
- Modesty Shorts: A rare male example! Goofy’s gym clothes mainly consist of a caveman-like cloak. Underneath his cloak, Goofy wears a pair of shorts that are visible in several shots, especially when he tries lifting the barbell with his feet while lying on the floor [https://makeagif.com/gif/1949-goofy-gymnastics-2n5oZs?ref=iYcfR9].
- Muscles Are Meaningless: For a skinny dog, Goofy is strong enough to carry the package containing his gym set (including the barbell) all the back to his apartment from the mailbox. When working out, however, Goofy has trouble lifting the barbell alone.
- One-Wheeled Wonder: With the weights of the barbell trapping his hands and feet, Goofy tries lifting the barbell by shaking his bottom, only to flip over and roll across the floor on the circular weights like a wheel. Goofy rolls all the way onto a board which causes him to flip and land in a perfect position holding the barbell over his head.
- Recycled Animation: The cartoon begins with Goofy returning to his apartment clearly exhausted. He opens the door, collapses on the floor, and crawls to his chair. This happens again after Goofy crashes through the floor, only this time he is wearing his gym clothes and crawls to the muscle chart. The same bit of animation is also reused on the later short "Hold That Pose".
- Removable Animal Markings: As Goofy struggles to lift the barbell, the spots on his caveman cloak pop off from the strain.
- Right Out of My Clothes: When Goofy gets tangled in the stretching cables, his caveman cloak somehow slips off. Despite being tangled, Goofy crawls back into his cloak.
- Screaming Woman: Two women are heard screaming during this cartoon. First it happens when Goofy is crashing through the floors. Another woman screams when Goofy goes flying out of his apartment and grabs her window sill.
- Shaking the Rump: With his hands and feet trapped in the weights, Goofy continues his attempt to lift the barbell by lifting his bottom and shaking it back and forth.
- Skintone Sclerae: Goofy’s eyes briefly turn into this when the fly is about to land on the barbell. Then his sclerae magically turn white again one second before the fly actually lands on the barbell.
