Embed from Getty Images
It’s the great conundrum of the 20th Century: why does Goofy talk but Pluto doesn’t? They’re both Disney dogs, and surely an animated universe must still operate with some organizing laws of nature? Well, conundrum no more, my friends. Actor Bill Farmer has voiced Goofy since 1987, so he is uniquely qualified to clarify for us the key distinction we’ve been missing: Goofy is not a dog. Nor is he a cow like his girlfriend, Clarabelle (duh, just because you’re dating a cow doesn’t make you a cow). As Farmer defined last week to podcasters Leigh Livingstone and Tim Iffland: “He’s not a dog, but he’s a canine. So it’s kind of like a wolf is not a dog but it’s a canine. Same thing. ‘Goofus Canis,’ that’s what he is.” Get it now?!?!
Disney’s beloved character Goofy is not, as many fans believe, a dog like his trusty pal Pluto, Mickey Mouse’s loyal pet hound. Nor is Goofy a cow, like his girlfriend Clarabelle.
“He’s not a dog,” Bill Farmer, who has provided the voice of Goofy since 1987, said on the Aug. 4 episode of Australian hosts Leigh Livingstone and Tim Iffland’s Popcorn Podcast With Leigh and Tim. “But he’s a canine. So it’s kind of like a wolf is not a dog but it’s a canine. Same thing. ‘Goofus Canis,’ that’s what he is.”
The 71-year-old continued jokingly, “Or he’s a ‘mog.’”
Farmer has made similar comments in past years. In 2021, in response to a fan debate on the matter, he tweeted, “Goofy is certainly not a cow! Neither is he a dog!”
The actor also said in 2020 that Goofy was not a dog. “Goofy seems to be in the canine family in the same way that maybe a wolf is not a dog, but they also are in the canine family,” he told Yahoo! Entertainment at the time, later adding, “He’s just Goofy.”
He was later redrawn to look younger and according to the Disney Parks’ official blog, he later appeared in newspaper comic strips as Dippy Dawg (which rhymes with that animal he definitely isn’t). His name officially became “Goofy” in 1939 with the release of the film Goofy & Wilbur, the blog noted.
Farmer made his debut as the voice of Goofy in the cartoon Disney’s Doggone Valentine, a special that aired during the holiday in February 1987.
Over the next few decades, Farmer went on to reprise the role in projects such as the hit 1995 animated film A Goofy Movie and video games such as Disney Dreamlight Valley, in addition to numerous TV episodes.
If you’re scritchin’ yourself behind the ears right now trying to make sense of this explanation… you’re not alone. I was chasing my tail trying so hard to make this work, I even looked up all the sub-species in the Canine family. Was Farmer saying that Goofy is a coyote? A jackal? No way he’s a wolf, but I now know there’s a creature called the “coywolf,” could he be that? I was seriously beginning to doubt my mental acuity until I remembered a crucial fact: this is commentary about Goofy by a Goofy — it’s not going to be logical!
So let’s put that to the dog bed and get talkin’ about my real question: who the f–k is Clarabelle?! I grew up on the Disney classics just like the rest of us, including oldies collected by my father, and I don’t recall ever seeing Goofy with a girlfriend, let alone one named Clarabelle Cow. So I went digging, and luckily stumbled on an article called “The Relationship Evolution of Goofy and Clarabelle Cow.” It’s a short piece, but packed with a lot of info about a tri-species love triangle across the decades. First of all, I became outraged on Clarabelle’s behalf, upon learning that in her inaugural cartoon, two-faced Mickey Mouse remarks “Oh, Minnie, here comes Clarabelle Cow, the town gossip. I heard she had her tonsils removed so she could talk more freely!” Uh, takes one to know one, Mick. Then it turns out Ms. Cow is basically going steady with an equine, Horace Horsecollar. They were even engaged! Yet somehow, inexplicably, Goofy Not-Dog charms her away. Only to drop her decades later for the ill-conceived Glory-Bee, and guess who Clarabelle trots back to? Poor Horace.
Just think about this sordid backstory the next time Goofy tries to weasel out of a sticky spot with a dopey “Oh Gawrsh!” He may not be a dog, but he is a man!
photos credit Getty and via Wikipedia
Goofy is a dog without a doubt! They are just trying to make it make sense retroactively. Big fail Disney! 🤣
I thought Clarabelle was Horace’s girlfriend?
Anyway I’ve met her in the parks and she’s great, better interaction than with Minnie.
So when I was waiting in line for another visit and the CM told us it would be Clarabelle (it was Minnie and her friends, so Minnie, Daisy or Clarabelle) some left but I stayed. And had the following interaction with said CM(cast member):
Me to the CM: “Clarabelle is lovely”
CM: “Clarabelle is i-co-nic”
🥰
Anybody else thinking about how the boys in Stand By Me have a conversation about what is Goofy?
YES came here to say the same thing!!
Goofy is a dog and Hello Kitty is a cat. I refuse to accept anything else.
💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯
It’s crazy talk to say Goofy isn’t a dog or Hello Kitty isn’t a cat. MAGA level fake news
Ok, so he is a dog! At the end of the Runaway Railway ride, when you get reconnected to Goofy who is driving the train engine, you get patched back in to the intercom or whatever and hear the end of a story Goofy is telling and there are a variety of these little monologues, Once, I heard him say, “And that is why I wear pants, but Pluto doesn’t.” My teenager and I were nearly hysterical because we have had this “dog or not” conversation before!
And I get it that Goofy is his own being. After all, he has a kid and none of the rest of the characters like that do.
But if you really want to be weirded out, Donald Duck and his extended family eat turkey for Christmas dinner. Something about that continues to disturb me.
It was the Power Rangers, my boys wanted to see at Disney World. The heck with dog/cow creatures. World saving teenagers are the best.
the best part of this post, kismet, is your use of the phrase “tri-species.” it was not long ago that i realized that the “triboro bridge” in NY (now the RFK Bridge) connects not two, but THREE boros. this was a shocking piece of information that i am, in many ways, still absorbing. and i went to college! My nice makes merciless fun of me about this. but i digress.