Disney's Goofy Character Isn't Actually a Dog

E! News

August 11, 2024 at 8:26 PM·18 min read

Originally appeared on E! Online

This fun fact may make you go, “Gawrsh!”

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 since 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.'

Barker 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."

Farmer is the seventh actor to provide the voice of Goofy since he was first introduced as an older character named Dippy Dawg—which rhymes with that animal he definitely isn't—in the cartoon Mickey's Revue, which aired in May 1932. He was redrawn to look younger and his name was changed to Goofy in The Whoopee Party, another animated short that was released later that year.

Farmer was born 20 years after Goofy’s first appearance in the Disney animated short, “Mickey’s Revue.” As a child, he remembers watching his future alter ego — who was originally voiced by Pinto Colvig — on TV shows like Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Colour.

“He was my favourite Disney character,” Farmer says, crediting those cartoons with shaping his career ambitions. “I grew up doing voices, and I loved cartoons. I always practiced the voices and became a stand-up comic impressionist for about five years before moving to L.A.”

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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.

Disney's Goofy Character Isn't Actually a Dog—Or a Cow (1)

Disney's Goofy Character Isn't Actually a Dog—Or a Cow (2)

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.

Disney's Goofy Character Isn't Actually a Dog—Or a Cow (3)

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.

The actor currently portrays Goofy in the ongoing Disney preschool-aged series Mickey Mouse Funhouse and is set to reprise the role in a reboot of similar show Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, which is due to premiere 2025. In addition to his voiceover work, Farmer, who has also voiced Pluto onscreen since 1990, hosts the Disney+ docuseries It’s A Dog's Life, which focuses on working dogs.

"I've done probably close to 3,000 or 4,000 different projects for Disney over the last 33 years as Goofy and Pluto," the actor said in a video shared on the streaming platform's YouTube page in 2020. "It made me think, well, I love dogs. There's probably got to be a lot of dog people out there that would love to find out about working dogs and what they do."

Read on for magical facts about your favorite Disney films, once of which features a cameo from Goofy...