Western Animation / Goofy

"A-hyuck!"^note "Celebrate the Goof" painted by Disney fine artist Tim Rogerson

"Goofy was someone who never really knew how stupid he was. He thought long and carefully before he did anything, and then he did it wrong."

— Art Babbitt, from the 1987 documentary, Animating Art.

Goofy is one of the world's most iconic cartoon characters and the third member of Walt Disney's quintessential Power Trio, along with Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.

Goofy first appeared in the 1932 Mickey Mouse short, Mickey's Revue. After a few appearances in Mickey's cartoons and joining up with Mickey and Donald in classics such as Mickey's Fire Brigade, Clock Cleaners, Lonesome Ghosts and Boat Builders, Goofy eventually began to star in his own series of cartoons, with his voice provided by Pinto Colvig (also known as Bozo the Clown).

When Colvig left Disney in 1938, Goofy was left without a voice, so Disney made the best of a bad situation and conceived the How to... shorts, where most of the dialogue was done by a narrator, with Goofy's voice provided mostly by stock audio or an imitator until Colvig's return to Disney in 1944. The concept of the How to.. shorts was so well-received that they are a staple of Disney and considered some of Goofy's best cartoons. One of them, The Art of Skiing, introduced his trademark Goofy Holler (YAAAAAA-HOO-HOO-HOO-HOOEY!).

In The '50s, Disney introduced the "Goofy the Everyman" concept, in which Goofy was transformed into a family man going through common everyday trials such as quitting smoking, dieting, raising children, catching a cold and so on. He is never referred to as Goofy in the shorts of this period (though the title cards still said Walt Disney Presents Goofy)—instead, he's usually named George Geef, though some shorts gave him other names. His character design also changed, making his whole body pale instead of just his face^note  although he did have pale skin on his hands, legs, and feet in many of his earlier cartoons, smaller eyes with eyebrows, removing the long dog-like ears, large buck teeth and his white gloves, giving him a more human-like look and also making him more intelligent and giving him a normal-sounding voice. These shorts depicted him with a wife and son. Often, the rest of society looked just like him, something carried over from the earlier How to... shorts. The humour was also more sedate, mostly poking fun at suburban life in the 1950s. Although Goofy reverted to his old voice in No Smoking, and his buckteeth, ears, and gloves had returned in 1952, the "Everyman" era lasted until Aquamania in 1961, as Goofy reverted back to his old personality by 1965's Freewayphobia and Goofy's Freeway Troubles (also known as Freewayphobia No. 2), which were also his last How To... shorts until the 2000s, as well as Pinto Colvig's final performances as Goofy's voice before his death in 1967. After this period, Goofy's appearances slowed down.

In comic books of The '70s, he had a Super Hero alter ego, Super Goof, that is still used in Italian and Scandinavian stories.

In The '90s, he starred in a new TV series, Goof Troop, in which he and his son Max moved next door to a Lighter and Softer version of Mickey's nemesis, Pete. This led to a movie based on the series, A Goofy Movie. Goofy is the only one of the Power Trio to star in a full, non-segmented theatrical feature film.

In recent years, Goofy has re-appeared along with the rest of the gang in the new Mickey Mouse shorts. Goofy is also featured in the Kingdom Hearts video game series as a shield-bearing knight and one of Sora's sidekicks alongside Donald.

One of the most noted qualities of Goofy's slapstick humor lies in the fact that when he does something guaranteed to result in Hilarity Ensues (which is just about everything he does), there is a blatantly obvious outcome as to how it will go wrong - for example, falling off a ledge or crashing into something. The obvious outcome should never be the end of it and must in itself lead to Disaster Dominoes that the audience did not see coming.

Oh, and for the record, he's an anthropomorphic dog. Most of the time, at least.

His current official voice actor, and probably most memorable voice, is Bill Farmer, who is also the current voice of Pluto.

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Individual Shorts Filmography

1930s

• "Mickey's Revue" (1932): First appearance of Goofy, where he's an old geezer crumpling up peanuts and doing his Signature Laugh, much to the annoyance of the audience.
• "The Whoopee Party" (1932): First time Goofy is seen as part of Mickey's posse of friends, and Age Lifted into his more current state.
• "Mickey's Mellerdrammer" (1933)
• "Ye Olden Days" (1933): Last time the character would be referred to as "Dippy Dawg."
• "Orphan's Benefit" (1934): First cartoon featuring Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy all in the same cartoon, though not performing as a team.
• "The Band Concert" (1935): First time Goofy appeared in color.
• "Mickey's Service Station" (1935): First time Mickey, Donald, and Goofy appeared in a short as a team.
• "Mickey's Fire Brigade" (1935)
• "On Ice" (1935)
• "Mickey's Polo Team" (1936)
• "Moving Day" (1936): First time Goofy was seen with his Iconic Outfit.
• "Mickey's Amateurs" (1937)
• "Clock Cleaners" (1937)
• "Lonesome Ghosts" (1937)
• "Mickey's Trailer" (1938)
• "Polar Trappers" (1938): First time the character was known as "Goofy". First time Goofy appeared in a short without Mickey. First entry in the "Donald and Goofy" series.
• "Goofy and Wilbur" (1939) First solo short.

1940s

• "Goofy's Glider" (1940): First "How to" short.
• "Baggage Buster" (1941)
• "The Art Of Skiing" (1941): Marks the debut of the Goofy yell.
• "The Art Of Self Defense" (1941)
• "How To Play Baseball" (1942)
• "The Olympic Champ" (1942)
• "How To Swim" (1942)
• "How to Fish" (1942)
• "El Gaucho Goofy" (1943, originally part of Saludos Amigos, 1942)
• "Victory Vehicles" (1943)
• "How to Be a Sailor" (1944)
• "How To Play Golf" (1944)
• "How to Play Football" (1944)
• "Tiger Trouble" (1945)
• "African Diary" (1945)
• "Californy Er Bust" (1945)
• "Hockey Homicide" (1945)
• "Knight for a Day" (1946)
• "Double Dribble" (1946)
• "Crazy with the Heat" (1947)
• "Foul Hunting" (1947)
• "They're Off" (1948)
• "The Big Wash" (1948) Last appearance of Goofy in his traditional big eye look.
• "Tennis Racquet" (1949) First appearance of Goofy redesigned to have smaller eyes with eyebrows. The only appearance of Goofy with brown fur.
• "Goofy Gymnastics" (1949): Shown playing in a theater in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, despite the film taking place two years before the film was released.

1950s

• "How to Ride a Horse" (1950, originally part of The Reluctant Dragon, 1941)
• "Motor Mania" (1950) Prototype of Goofy in his George Geef persona. Here he's referred to as both Mr. Walker and Mr. Wheeler.
• "Hold That Pose" (1950)
• "Lion Down" (1951)
• "Home Made Home" (1951)
• "Cold War" (1951) First appearance of Goofy in his George Geef persona.
• "Tomorrow We Diet" (1951)
• "Get Rich Quick" (1951)
• "Fathers Are People" (1951)
• "No Smoking" (1951) The return of the Goofy persona (though he would still be referred to as George Geef for the rest of the 50's with a few exceptions).
• "Father's Lion" (1952)
• "Hello, Aloha" (1952)
• "Man's Best Friend" (1952)
• "Two Gun Goofy" (1952) Goofy is redesigned to have slightly larger eyes and his two buckteeth are moved together to the center of his mouth.
• "Teachers Are People" (1952)
• "Two Weeks Vacation" (1952)
• "How to Be a Detective" (1952)
• "Father's Day Off" (1953)
• "For Whom the Bulls Toil" (1953) A rare entry where Goofy is in his traditional clothes.
• "Father's Week-End" (1953)
• "How to Dance" (1953)
• "How to Sleep" (1953)

1960s

• "Aquamania" (1961)
• "Freewayphobia" (1965)
• "Goofy's Freeway Troubles" (1965)

1980s

• "Mickey's Christmas Carol" (1983) The return of Goofy in his traditional big eye design.
• "Sport Goofy in Soccermania" (1987) ^note TV special, weirdly featuring Scrooge McDuck, Huey Dewey and Louie, and even the Beagle Boys in major roles, not long before DuckTales (1987)

2000s

• "How to Hook Up Your Home Theater" (2007)

2010s

• "Checkin' In with Goofy" (2011) ^note  This short was made to introduce the new online processes of checking in for Disney Cruise Line

2020s

• "How to Stay at Home" (2021)^note A series of three shorts made for Disney+ centered around the COVID-19 pandemic directed by Eric Goldberg (animator of the Genie from Aladdin)

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Tropes associated with Goofy:

• Accidental Hero: In "Two-Gun Goofy", Goofy is a cowboy who wanders into a Western town terrorized by outlaw Pete. He accidentally keeps on besting Pete at every turn, unaware that he's even there for most of the cartoon.
• Adaptational Badass: While Goofy's certainly no pushover, the Kingdom Hearts series makes him The Captain of King Mickey's royal guard. He's also a recurring ally to Sora, using his shield to become a more-than-effective Mighty Glacier.
• Adaptational Ugliness: Goofy has always looked awkward, but in the Paul Rudish shorts, he has a downright unhealthy look, with an unshaven muzzle, a noticeable gut, a vulture-like slouch, and yellowish sclerae.
• Added Alliterative Appeal: In Victory Vehicles, we get this:
  Narrator: (reading newspaper headline) "Pumping Politician Polls Precinct in Public Primaries - Pumps as He Stumps." Eh, this popular public personality predicts...
  Politician: It is a pleasure and a privilege to personally point the pride and praise the perfect performance of this pump perambulator.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: A trait he got in the Italian Disney comics. Goofy strongly refuses to believe in the existence of magic, no matter how many times Witch Hazel shows him her most powerful magic tricks. The thing is that, while he refuses to believe that Hazel and any actual magic user or object (save for the peanuts that give him superpowers) may actually be magic, he actually does believe in magic... he just never recognizes it when he sees it.
• Art Evolution: Went from a Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal, to fully clothed, to looking more human with smaller eyes and then back to his previous big-eyed look.
  • Aquamania was the first Goofy short to be inked and painted using the less expensive Xerox method, resulting in a scruffier look than previous shorts.
• Baseball Episode: "How to Play Baseball". It's Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
• Bears Are Bad News: In "Hold That Pose", Goofy takes up photography as a hobby and decides to photograph wildlife. His subject: a grizzly bear that is not particularly happy about having its picture taken. The result: a chase like you wouldn't believe.
• Beastly Bloodsports: In "For Whom the Bull Toils", Goofy is mistaken for a skilled matador after unwittingly conquering a bull while touring Mexico.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Goofy is much more tolerant and patient than Donald, Daisy and, to some extent, Mickey. However, he hates it when people make him seem stupid or insult his intelligence. He gets angry if he realizes that he's being insulted. Also, do NOT harm Wilbur, his pet grasshopper, or he'll chase you and force you to give him back to him if he has to.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Goofy has shown tons of times when he can be pretty tough when the need arises—in An Extremely Goofy Movie, he rushes into a burning building to rescue Max, and he has had many shorts use his lucky while bumbling trait to an more tough, heroic and still flawless degree of an top-dog when facing enemies like "Goofy's Father Lion" with how he treated his enemy Louie the mountain lion, doing this unwittingly no-less and "Two Gun Goofy" of him being The Fool in a heroic way overall are prime examples of this.
  • This is also used as Goofy's trait in several of Romano Scarpa's comic book stories. He is typically content to play second fiddle to Mickey, and he is less aggressive than him in adventure stories. But when Goofy's loved ones are in danger, Goofy gets far more aggressive, more focused and more competent. Spelling doom for the villains, and forcing Mickey to take the second fiddle role.
• The Big Guy: Is the tallest of the main Disney shorts characters.
• Binomium ridiculus: "Freewayphobia" describes three different types of troublesome driver one might encounter on freeways in this fashion: there's the slow, timid, and overly-cautious Driverius timidicus; the bad-tempered, impatient, and aggressive Motoramus fidgetus; and the careless, inattentive Neglecterus maximus. The sequel "Goofy's Freeway Troubles" includes Stupidicus ultimus, the driver who neglects his vehicle's maintenance, drives exhausted or even drunk, and is generally careless on and around the freeway.
• Bizarre and Improbable Golf Game: "How to Play Golf". Highlights include missing a putt even after precise calculations, and keeping the ball in play even as he's being chased by a bull.
• The Boxing Episode: The short "The Art of Self Defense".
• Breakout Character: He started as an extra in some of Mickey Mouse's cartoons and went on to get his own series of shorts, his own television series and his own theatrical movie that was popular enough for a direct-to-video sequel.
• Bull Seeing Red: "For Whom the Bulls Toil": After failing to move a bull from the road, he produces a red handkerchief, which immediately grabs the bull's attention. A few Ole's later, and Goofy's a matador.
• Bumbling Dad: Much to the dismay of his son, Max. This trope is also played to perfection in the 1950s cartoons where Goofy is depicted as a suburban father named George Geef. A perfect example is "Father's Day Off", in which Goofy, as Geef, is woefully unprepared to take on the responsibilities of running the house in his wife's absence.
• Butt-Monkey: Trips and falls a lot, to say nothing of his various "How To" and "Art Of" shorts, where he (or other dogfaces) gets repeatedly beaten up.
• Canon Welding: Goofy's cartoons had had absolutely no continuity and made heavy use of a Universal-Adaptor Cast. Certain episodes of Walt Disney Presents, in particular "The Goofy Adventure Story", stitched these disparate cartoons together by presenting them as parts of Goofy's Insanely International Ancestry.
• Cartoon Creature: Though usually identified as a dog, he doesn't look much like one. He does, however strongly resemble Pluto.
• Character Catchphrase: "Gawrsh!" "Somthin' wrong here." "Heavens 'ta Betsy!", "YAAAAAA-HA-HA-HA-HOOOOEEEEEEEY!", "Ah-hyuck!"
• Characterization Marches On: He was more of a Jerkass in his first few appearances in the Mickey Mouse comic strip, stealing furniture to open a detective agency, playing pranks on Mickey's pets, and so on. This was soon dropped and we got the lovably bumbling Nice Guy we all know.
• Character Tics: Cartoonist Paul Murry gave Goofy a rather memorable one of putting one of his hands in front of his mouth whenever he had one of them free. Murry explained that he felt the detail made Goofy look even more naïve.
• Cheating with the Milkman: "Father's Day Off" highly suggests this of Mrs. Geef. When Goofy answers the door for the milk delivery, the milkman, eyes closed, kisses him warmly on the lips before departing, stunning Goofy, mistaking the milkman's kiss as him just being friendly. The grocery delivery later repeats the process. By the time the doorbell rings the third time, Goofy is happily expecting a kiss.
• Chekhov's Volcano: The volcano in "Hello Aloha".
• The Chew Toy: Although not to the extent of Donald, most of his shorts threw him into unfortunate situations at his expense.
• Chronically Crashed Car: Goofy's cars fall, literally and figuratively, into this trope.
• Chaste Toons: Averted, as he has a son named Max.
• Clark Kenting: When he's Super Goof.
• Cloudcuckoolander: He can be prone to this at times due to either Goofy's well.. goofiness or his absurdities occasionally occurring in later shorts and most especially later adaptions such as Goof Troop being the biggest example of Goofy slowly becoming an Cloudcuckoolander while being his good 'ol goofy self.
• Cold Turkeys Are Everywhere: "Tomorrow We Diet!": Eat! Eat! Eat! Eat! Eat!
• Conjoined Eyes: Averted in his George Geef years and in Goof Troop.
• Cosmic Plaything: Especially evident in some of the earlier shorts. A defining example is in the Mickey short "Hawaiian Holiday" where Goofy repeatedly tries and fails to surf a wave. Just when it looks like he's finally succeeded, the wave itself says "oh yeah?" and swats him into the sand. In other words, the world itself likes screwing with him.
• Couldn't Find a Lighter: During the history of smoking in "No Smoking", the Goofy facing the firing squad has his last cigarette lit by a bullet. Later, George Geef uses his pop-up toaster to light a cigarette: catching it in his mouth as it shoots out.
• Cowboy Episode: Two-Gun Goofy, where Goofy is made the Accidental Hero as he goes up against Pistol Pete.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Goofy is well, goofy, but his Beware the Silly Ones quality can make him out to be this.
• Cute Little Fangs: Goofy's actually gap-toothed, but his widely-spaced front teeth look like fangs and he's pretty cute.
• Department of Redundancy Department: In the short "Tiger Trouble", when the narrator describes the tiger:
  Narrator: Man he likes to eat...A man-eater!
• Depending on the Artist:
  • Disney couldn't decide how they wanted Goofy to look during the 1940s, '50s and '60s. He was depicted with or without his ears, black fur or flesh-colored skin, with or without gloves, with or without buck teeth, and in rare cases, with four or five fingers (as in "Baggage Buster"). This briefly happened again in Goof Troop with the fur/skin color.
  • In the short, Goofy and Wilbur, when Goofy takes off one of his gloves, his gloveless hand is revealed to be flesh-colored.
• Depending on the Author: He's been identified as a dog by some people but has been mentioned to be something else in other media at least once. Also, he can either be very dumb and clumsy or an Unlucky Everydude with a normal level of intelligence.
  • In Kingdom Hearts he's depicted as smarter and more bright than the rest for the most part, though a lot of this is him always playing the straight man to Sora and Donald.
• Diet Episode: The short "Tomorrow We Diet!".
• The Ditz: Why'd you think he's called "Goofy"?
• D.I.Y. Disaster: Occurs in many of his shorts.
• Dogs Are Dumb: Maybe not as dumb as many cartoon mutts, but he still fits the bill.
• Dogface: He, or perhaps the many Goofy-lookalikes that populate the "How to..." shorts, are the prototypical Dogfaces.
• Domestic Appliance Disaster: In "Father's Day Off", Goofy replaces his wife for a day. A dress got wet and shrinks immediately. Goofy then tries to iron it, but forget the iron on it (granted, he had to answer a phone call). It goes up to eleven as the iron not only tear a hole in the dress , but also burn the plank, then the floor, and finally fell on Goofy's head who was in the room downstairs.
• Don't Eat and Swim: In the cartoon "How to Swim", Goofy's changing cabin falls into the water while he's inside and ends up walking out, setting up a picnic area and eating a full meal without being aware that he's underwater. The narrator points out the rule of waiting before eating and warning about cramps, which appear as knots all over Goofy's limbs and body.
• "Down Here!" Shot: On the short "Double Dribble", the camera holds on a shot of basketball players standing in line. As the line moves there is a gap, and the camera moves down to a ridiculously short player.
• Drives Like Crazy: As Mr. Wheeler in the short "Motor Mania", and as Motoramus Fidgitus in "Freewayphobia".
  • Also Mrs. Geef in "Father's Day Off".
• Dub Name Change: Quite a bunch throughout the world.
  • In Sweden, he's known as "Långben", which means "Long-Legs". During his first cartoons, he also got the mundane first name ”Jan”, or ”Janne” as he’s called in "A Goofy Movie". But since said movie, he hasn’t been called that at any other point.
  • In French-speaking countries, he's known as "Dingo", coming from the French word "dingue", meaning "wild" or "crazy", describing Goofy's personality.
  • In Italy, he's known as "Pippo".
  • In Spanish, he is called "Tribilín", though current translations use his original name.
  • In Portuguese, he is called "Pateta", which is more-or-less an accurate translation (it means "goofball").
• Dumb Is Good: His current Nice Guy characterization is also paired with him being exceedingly klutzy and airheaded.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: First appeared as an old heckler with a beard in the 1932 short, Mickey's Revue. He was also pantsless in his first few years, had a tail, had more dog-like features, and was called Dippy Dawg.
• Easy Come, Easy Go: Spoken word for word twice in "Get Rich Quick": first, when Goofy leaves the alley where he has been shooting craps and carrying a barrel as though he has bet all his clothes, but the barrel actually contains all the money he had won; second, at the end, as an Ironic Echo, when Goofy's wife confiscates all of his winnings at a poker game to use for herself.
• Eat the Bomb: In one Super Goof comic, the Beagle Boys try to get rid of Super Goof by feeding him an exploding peanut. It causes him to swell up like a balloon and then expel the explosion in a huge belch.
• Enmity with an Object: To quote from Art Babbitt's analysis, "Each object or piece of mechanism which to us is lifeless, has a soul and personality in the mind of the Goof." And so, he often finds himself at odds with such objects as they seem to conspire against him.
• The Everyman: The short "How To Play Baseball" introduced the idea of Goofy playing the part of many characters at once, with the potential to appeal to everybody and demolish an entire baseball field. In general, this is also how Goofy was portrayed originally, with him being just a normal dude going through daily grinds, suffering from everyday problems and enjoying the stuff most people tend to enjoy.
• Exploding Cigar: George Geef is caught by one at the end of "No Smoking". He is so desperate for a smoke that he doesn't even care about the Ash Face, but just stands there blissfully inhaling the smoke.
• The Faceless: In the "George Geef" shorts which featured Goofy as a husband, his wife is never shown above the neck, so we never see her face or head.
• The '50s: He's often the Standard '50s Father, occasionally with a Distinguished Gentleman's Pipe (overlaps with Bumbling Dad).
• Finger Gun: In "How To Play Golf", Goofy mimes shooting himself in the head after missing an easy putt. The "gun" actually goes off, although it only singes him. He reacts with horror and points the "gun" away from him.
• Flanderization: In the beginning of the Character Exaggeration territory, Goofy was shown to be a normal guy with a fairly normal level of intelligence (although he had some moments of recklessness and imprudence) and his accidents were more due to his bad luck than because of his foolishness. As the stories progressed, and especially in the present stories, his silliness and clumsiness has been exaggerated and he's sometimes depicted as a very dumb person. Then again, the two versions have been mixed from time to time Depending on the Author.
• Flat-Earth Atheist: Despite (or probably more likely because of) him living in a little world of his own at times, several comics have depicted him as this, most notably the series in which he hangs out with Witch Hazel and refuses to believe that she's a witch no matter how many impressive feats of magic she pulls off in order to convince him. He always has his own explanation for events, most of which are even more fantastic, far-fetched and unbelievable than "it's magic". Several other comics depict him as immune to the effects of hostile magic, purely because he doesn't believe in it and nothing can make him change his mind on the subject. However, according to other stories, he actually believes in magic, he just can't actually recognize it.
• A Fool and His New Money Are Soon Parted: The basis for "Get Rich Quick", although in this case it wasn't his fault. After finally winning big in poker and being wise enough to call it quits before losing it all again, Goofy goes home to his wife, who hogs all of his winnings for herself. Goofy merely shrugs and exclaims "Easy come, easy go".
• The Fool: Many Classic Disney shorts that featured Goofy himself had presented how incredibly lucky he can be aside from his usual clumsiness and how not so smart he can be.
• Formally-Named Pet: Mr. Pettibone, Goofy's pet cat in Mickey Mouseworks, House of Mouse, and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.
• Fully-Dressed Cartoon Animal
• Funetik Aksent: Goofy has always had one, but it's a lot more pronounced in the comics.
• Furry Confusion: When he appears alongside Pluto. Barring Rule of Funny, the most likely answer is that Goofy is to Pluto what a human is to a chimpanzee.
  • In an episode of House of Mouse, when Pete asks him what is he supposed to be, Goofy proclaims that he is a Goofy.
  • Famously referenced in Stand by Me:
    Gordie: All right, Mickey's a mouse. Donald's a duck. Pluto's a dog. What's Goofy?
    Teddy: Goofy's a dog. He's definitely a dog.
    Vern: He can't be a dog. He drives a car and wears a hat.
    Chris: Oh, God. That's weird. What the hell is Goofy?
• Furry Reminder: He has fewer Furry Reminders than either Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, Clarabelle Cow, or even Pete, but even he has a few.
  • In Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Willy the Giant refers to him as a dog.
  • In How to Hook Up Your Home Theater, right before his TV arrives to his house, he is shown sleeping on the floor like a normal dog, albeit lying in a human position.
  • In his brief appearance at the end of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Goofy can be heard proclaiming that Judge Doom couldn't have been a dog, which rather implies that he considers himself to be one.
  • In the Mickey Mouse (2013) short "Dog Show", Mickey enters Goofy into a dog show in place of an injured Pluto.
  • In a late-90s Disney Channel promo, while setting up a trap for Goofy using a doggy treat, one kid said to the other: "Wait a minute, is Goofy a dog?"
• The Gambling Addict: In "Get Rich Quick", Goofy played a guy named George Geef who enjoyed spending his hard earned dough on a chance to make an easy buck, only to get reprimanded by his wife (or worse, have her take his winnings to pay the bills).
• Glove Slap: Used in The Art of Self Defense to demonstrate what self-defense was like in the romantic age.
• Goofy Buckteeth: He might as well be the Trope Namer. Goofy is an air headed klutz with buckteeth that are often depicted as widely-spaced, although in cartoons from the 1950's, his buckteeth are considerably closer together, but no less goofy.
• Gretzky Has the Ball: Intentionally done at the end of "Hockey Homicide" to show just how much the game has descended into chaos.
• Have a Gay Old Time: In "No Smoking", Goofy desperately pleads a man for a cigarette, listing off various slangs for tobacco... including weed. While the modern-day definition of weed goes as far back as the 1920s, it was also a common phrase for tobacco well into The '50s.
  • Even more literal of this trope, "No Smoking" also included a common British slang for tobacco, fag, before that started becoming an American homophobic slur.
• Iconic Outfit: Goofy is an interesting case in the Classic Disney Shorts. Unlike his fellow friends Mickey and Donald, he didn't start out wearing the wardrobe most people today recognize him in, as seen in the image above, which debuted in Moving Day. Before that short, Goofy originally still has his iconic hat, but instead wore a sleeveless buttoned vest, and didn't even wear any pants! The latter outfit, however, regained some prominence thanks to Mickey Mouse (2013).
• Idiot Hero: Goofy is an exaggeratedly clumsy and foolish main character.
• I Have Many Names: Dippy Dawg, George Geef, G.G. Geef, James Boyd, Mr. Walker, Mr. Wheeler, Johnny Eyeball, Goofus D. Dawg., Mr. X, Driverius Timidicus, Motoramus Fidgitus, Neglectarus Maximus, Stupidicus Ultimus
• Incompetent Guard Animal: In "Man's Best Friend", Goofy goes out for the evening and leaves his dog to guard the house. That night, a burglar breaks in, has a shoot out with police, and gets arrested, all without the dog waking up. But when Goofy returns, his own dog growls at him and chases him up a tree.
• Inexplicably Identical Individuals: A good chunk of his shorts has everyone looking like him.
• Insanely International Ancestry: Something especially notable in his comics incarnations is that Goofy has a ridiculously old and spread-out family tree. In almost any given situation where history is brought up, he'll offhandedly mention having a great-great-great-great-grandfather or -uncle from the period and region in question and pop up to his enormous and cluttered attic to fish out yet another centuries-old souvenir that his family stashed there. This eventually got to be something of a classic Running Gag with him. It was eventually deliberately exaggerated in the Italian comic series Goofy's Great-grand-ancestors (I Bis-bis di Pippo), which focused on following en extensive series of Goofy lookalikes through 1800's Paris, Columbus' ships on the way to the Americas, the European Middle Ages, Ancient Rome, China, Greece and Egypt, Babylon, the Stone Age, and eventually culminating in a Precambrian single-celled lifeform that already had Goofy's distinctive ears.
  • This trait was played for drama in an Italian time travel story from the 1970s, where Mickey and Goofy are randomly traveling to various eras. They get drawn to the locations of various ancestors of Goofy, and most of them are villains. While traveling to Babylon, Crete, Carthage, Rome, Medieval Italy, and 19th-century Mississippi, Goofy gets to meet ancestors who work as brutal officers in various armies, professional executioners, and river pirates. And most of these guys attempt to kill him. By the time the duo manage to return to the present, Goofy is sick and tired of humanity's brutal past and its constant warfare. Then he notices some brutal crimes in his present era, and starts worrying about future wars.
• Interspecies Romance: Has romanced human women and even aliens. The "George Geef" shorts seem to have him married to a human woman. Nowadays, he's more often paired with Clarabelle Cow.
• Iron Butt Monkey: In the How to... shorts.
• Jekyll & Hyde: In the short "Motor Mania", Goofy has two personas: The friendly, mild-mannered pedestrian Mr. Walker and the rude, ill-tempered driver Mr. Wheeler.
• Jungles Sound Like Kookaburras: One short had Goofy going tiger hunting in the Central Asian jungle and the first shots of the jungles start off with all kinds of jungle sounds, including the kookaburra.
• Kavorka Man: You might not believe it from his awkward looks and dog-like face, but Goofy has had relationships with multiple women, most notably the mother of Max, as well as Clarabelle Cow.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: In both Goof Troop and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Yes, even an anthropomorphic dog is a Kindhearted Cat Lover. Try not to think about that too hard considering it's Fridge Logic.
  • That is, if you think he IS a dog and not something else.
  • He does consider Pete a good friend so it's not too much of a stretch.
• Kindhearted Simpleton: Goofy may be not so smart, but he makes up for that in his kindness and good-nature.
• Kitsch Collection: His attic in the comics is a chock-full, chaotic mess of souvenirs from his or his relatives' travels. Notably, he's capable of finding any single item in a few minutes at most, but only if his collection is messed up; if it's sorted out, he's completely lost.
• The Klutz: The clue's in his name. Rarely will you ever see him attempt anything without falling on his face or making an unintentional mess of himself.
• Large Ham: While usually laid-back, Goofy has his hammy moments. Like when he's Mr. Wheeler in "Motor Mania", who usually shouts his lines at the top of his lungs.
• Lemony Narrator: The narrator in the How to... shorts, who's often rambling, going on tangents, or simply being overdramatic. His stentorian voice helps a fair bit in this regard, as well.
• Lethal Chef: His failed attempts at baking a birthday cake for Mickey in "Mickey's Birthday Party."
• Living Shadow: In the cartoon "The Art of Self Defense", Goofy tries his hand at shadow boxing — and has his butt handed to him by his own shadow.
• Lovable Jock: His "Sport Goofy" persona in the 1980's, cashing in on his sports-themed cartoons from the 1940's, often involves him helping kids out, especially in children's books.
• The Man in the Mirror Talks Back:
  • In "Tomorrow We Diet", a fat Goofy is lectured on good nutrition by his reflection.
  • "Goofy Gymnastics": 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.
• Meaningful Name: He's very, you know, Goofy.
• Mind Screw: The ending of "Tomorrow We Diet!" has this in spades. Did Goofy eat the food or was it just his imagination? Is the guy who looks like him real or is he just a representation of his inner shame?
• Moody Mount: His mount in "How to Ride a Horse".
• Mundane Made Awesome: In "Victory Vehicles"; in a wartime economy where gasoline has become scarce and expensive, making travel difficult, the humble pogo stick is presented as the ultimate mode of transportation.
• Must Have Nicotine: Makes up the bulk of the plot of "No Smoking" (and provides the trope image, for that matter). Goofy, in his George Geef persona, decides to quit smoking, but soon finds that Cold Turkeys Are Everywhere and spends the rest of the cartoon scrambling desperately around town attempting to obtain tobacco in any form. Hilarity Ensues.
• Mythology Gag: Goofy is often associated with the song "The World Owes Me a Living", which in full tells the story of "The Grasshopper and the Ants". Not so coincidentally, the song first appeared in Disney's Silly Symphony adaptation of the fable, wherein the grasshopper was voiced by Pinto Colvig, the actor who later voiced Goofy.
• Nephewism:
  • Averted in some animated versions. While the other main characters of the Mickey Mouse franchise have their own nieces and nephews, Goofy has a son, Max.
  • Played straight in the comics, where he has a nephew named Gilbert.
• New Job as the Plot Demands: This is Goofy's whole shtick. Popular opinion is that due to being such a klutz, he can never keep a job for long.
• Nice Guy: His current characterization. He's clumsy as all get out, but he's a very loving friend and The Pollyanna.
• No Fourth Wall: Every short with a narrator will always have Goofy directly interacting with him at some point.
• Not So Above It All: The Narrator in the "How to" shorts often sounds uptight acting as the Straight Man against the Goof's antics, but at times, he would stray off-topic, such as in The Olympic Champ, when Goofy is pole-vaulting and gets stuck, he takes some time to recite some poetry.
• Official Couple:
  • For a while, Goofy's more-or-less official girlfriend was Glory Bee, a young Dog Face woman from the comic strips.
  • The "George Geef" shorts have him married to a seemingly-human woman whose face is always out of the camera.
  • More recently he's been paired with Clarabelle Cow.
• Old-Timey Bathing Suit: Goofy wears this anytime he goes out in the water.
• Our Zombies Are Different: In "Ghoul Friend", he appears a zombie that despite still having decayed flesh on it, behaves more like skeletons, with the ability to move separated limbs down to reassembling himself. And at the end of short, his demeanor remained as helpful and friendly as ever towards Mickey.
• Parental Hypocrisy: One subplot in a House of Mouse episode dealt with him holding back Max from driving lessons because he didn't think he could be a responsible driver. Later, they put on the Motor Mania short depicting his far more irresponsible driving, ending up with Max calling him out and him conceding the point.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Usually the dimwitted comic-relief in many shorts.
• The Pollyanna: It is easy to sympathise with Goofy, but oddly, almost impossible to pity him. For all his innocence and mishaps, nothing can keep him down; he will try and fail, try and fail, try and fail until the end. He is happy with who he is and how the world treats him, and for those rare seconds when he is sad, he will shortly brush it off, move on, and find a way to be happy, no matter what.
• Pop the Tires: On the short "How to Be a Detective", the thug that Goofy is pursuing pours tacks on the road. Goofy quickly uses a broom to sweep them out of the way.
• Proud Papa Passes Out the Cigars:
  • The short "Fathers Are People" opens with Goofy (as George Geef) passing out cigars to his coworkers to celebrate him becoming a father.
  • In "No Smoking", Goofy tries to get a cigar from a coworker who became a father, but it gets yanked away because he just quit smoking.
• Private Detective: Goofy as Johnny Eyeball in "How to Be a Detective".
• Put Me In, Coach!: The Runt at the End on "Double Dribble", who wants to be called from the bench, and is only put in because he's the only alternate left.
• Rapid-Fire Nail Biting:
  • On the cartoon "Californy Er Bust", a horse startled by a stagecoach starts biting on its horseshoe nails.
  • On "How to Play Golf", when Goofy's putt shot circles around the rim of the hole, with nail clippings flying out.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Even in his George Geef persona, Goofy can't resist getting In Touch with His Feminine Side. In "Father's Day Off," while he is trying to keep house, Goofy finds himself listening to a radio soap opera and getting caught up in the story, to the point where he starts crying his eyes out.
• Rearrange the Song: The title card music for the majority of Goofy shorts was rearranged beginning in the 1950s with more of a big band/swing feel.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The laid-back, affable blue to Donald's uptight, temperamental red whenever they're paired up.
• Removable Animal Markings: In "Tiger Trouble", Goofy's elephant sits on the tiger. When the tiger gets up, he finds that all his stripes are gone; they are now stuck on the elephant's behind.
• Rewind Gag: Often done on the "How-to" shorts, when the narrator asks for the scene to play again. A notable example is "How to Ride a Horse", where the run before a failed jump is run backwards (complete with backwards music) and the horse ends up running up a tree.
• Rotoscoping: The short "Baggage Buster" used rotoscoping to animate Goofy, resulting in more down to earth movement for him. Both "Hello Aloha" and "How to Dance" also uses rotoscoping for a brief scene of a Hula dancer.
• Safe Driving Aesop:
  • "Motor Mania", in which Goofy plays a dual role as kind pedestrian Mr. Walker and demon driver Mr. Wheeler.
  • "Freewayphobia" and "Goofy's Freeway Troubles" were produced to teach how to drive safely in the then-new freeway system, having Goofy play various types of unsafe drivers.
• Scatting: Goofy does this while singing "The World Owes Me a Living":
  Ohh, the world owes me a living... deedle-didle dodle-didle dum...
• Shameful Shrinking: Goofy shrinks after being caught outside in his nightgown in the cartoon "Father's Week End".
• Sick Episode: "Cold War", wherein Goofy, in the role of George Geef, catches a cold while at work and only gets better when his wife nurses him to health in a very over-the-top way.
• Signature Laugh: "A-hyuck!"
• Simpleton Voice: He has a deep, iconic voice with a Southern accent to go along with his stupidity.
• The Smart One: While still slow, he tends to pick things up a lot faster than his companions in Kingdom Hearts. He's apparently more computer-literate than Mickey here, too!
  • Although when an error for a "corrupted file" pops up he says it went all ker-skuffled.
• Snooty Sports: The 1949 cartoon "Tennis Racquet" has many jokes about how unpopular tennis was at the time. A long line of cars that appear to lead to the court is actually going to a flower show. The tightly packed spectators actually take up a small portion of the bleachers. The groundskeeper is seen cutting down six-foot-tall grass before the match as if it hasn't seen action all year; and is seen tending the court during the game, oblivious to the players running around him.
• Soap Punishment: Happens to Goof, Jr. in "Fathers Are People". Incidentally used as the trope page's main image.
• Special Edition Title: The original titles to How to Play Football had the credits spelled out by cards in the bleacher stands. Current reissue prints have more standard titles.
• Stock Audio Clip: Goofy barely spoke in his '40s shorts (the original voice, Pinto Colvig, had left Disney for Max Fleischer's studio; he returned eventually, however) and when he did, most of the time his lines and yells were from previous Disney shorts.
• Stock Scream:
  • The famous Goofy Holler. Originally done in The Art of Skiing by Hannes Schroll, a former Austrian Alpine skier and owner of the Sugar Bowl Ski Resort and professional yodeler.
    "YAAAAAH-Hoo-Hoo-Hoo-HOOEY!"
  • He had two others during the 1940s and '50s. These examples were justified due to Pinto Colvig, Goofy's original voice actor, temporarily leaving Disney due to a falling-out with Walt Disney, forcing the company to reuse some of Colvig's voice samples for consistency's sake.
• Surprisingly Creepy Moment: Of all things, he appears as a zombie in "Ghoul Friend". But after the initial misunderstandings, he's revealed to be as friendly and helpful as ever.
• Sweeping the Table: In the short "No Smoking," Goofy decides to quit smoking, and he shoves all the tobacco-related items off his work desk and into the trash bin next to it.
• Tomato Surprise: In The Return of the Phantom Blot, an accident Goofy ends up in at the beginning of the story causes him to think he is the Phantom Blot during the night, and ends up very sleepy during the day.
• Too Dumb to Fool: In the comics. In one story, Mickey Mouse and the Jewel Thief, Goofy is the one character who is immune to the title crook's hypnotic powers.
• Took a Level in Jerkass:
  • In "No Service", one of the Mickey Mouse series of animated shorts, Goofy runs a seaside grill and so strictly follows the "no shirt, no shoes, no service" policy that he unceremoniously turns Mickey and Donald away because the former does not wear a shirt and the latter does not wear shoes, even if they're his friends and he has known them and their attires for a long time. When Donald tries to gain access wearing Mickey's shoes and red pants, Goofy asks to see an I.D. So Donald digs into the pants and pulls out Mickey's driver's license.
    Goofy: (infuriated) What're ya, clownin' me? That. Ain't. You. (kicks Donald out) And stay out!
  • In "Tomorrow We Diet!" his inner self is horribly insulting and mean-spirited towards his weight problems and even eats his food in the end after forcing him not to eat!
• Tritagonist: When teamed up with Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.
• Vocal Dissonance: In four of the "George Geef" cartoons of 1951, Goofy has a different voice entirely from the Simpleton Voice he normally has.
• Vocal Evolution: Pinto Colvig, Goofy's original voice actor, played the character all the way up to his death in the mid 60's, so as time went by, his voice subtly changed to become less, well, goofy sounding. By the time he last played the character in "Goofy's Freeway Troubles" and "Donald Duck Goes West", his Goofy voice has a lower and more worn sounding voice than he did in the 30's and 40's cartoons.
• Wartime Cartoon: "Victory Vehicles" and "How To Be A Sailor".
• Wham Line: "Motor Mania" ends with Goofy (as Mr. Wheeler) yelling something he'd never said before, and has never said again since:
  Mr. Wheeler: [at both the narrator and at us] Aww, SHUT UP!!!
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Goofy's son and wife are nowhere to be seen in more modern stories, unlike Goof Troop (which introduces his son Max) or House of Mouse (where Max works as the parking valet).
• Your Other Left: One section in "How to Ride a Horse" shows the right and wrong way to mount a horse:
  Narrator: The right side happens to be the wrong side. This leaves us the left side, which is right. Therefore, since the left is right and the right... wrong, we begin the left foot — that's the right foot — in the left stirrup, which is right, being the left foot, since the right would be wrong.
  • Goofy being Goofy, of course, he mounts his horse on the right side, which happens to be the wrong side, which, as the narrator says, "can sometimes lead to slight difficulties", especially since his horse is relatively obstinate.

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