While most people mindlessly enjoy watching their favorite Disney characters on screen, some like to dig deeper by playing detective and rehashing the age-old debate about a certain beloved character’s existence.
One such question that cropped up in the minds of kids of different generations is, “Is Goofy a dog?”
A quick Wikipedia search brings up a clear answer: that the cherished character was first introduced in 1932 alongside the likes of Mickey Mouse; with a turtle neck and vest, with pants, shoes, white gloves, and a tall hat originally designed as a rumpled fedora; who used to go by “Dippy Dawg” is a DOG. But can anyone ever trust Wikipedia?
Is Goofy a Cow or a Dog?
Apparently not, as evidenced by Myrna Nuarhpa taking to TikTok in a viral post to ask the question that drove so many fans to an existential crisis: “How old were you when you found out Goofy was actually a cow and not a dog?”
Well, this argument has been strengthened by the video which claimed that Goofy is indeed an Aberdeen Angus cow and not a dog with human traits.
This created havoc in the comments as people started chiming in. “He’s a dog, former cast member here. It was something we actually had to learn,” someone said.
Twitter countered by saying, “Clarabelle is a cow, but not Goofy. They are drawn similarly, though,” as a way of explanation.
Goofy has been cited as a dog with human features by a website. Disney website has likened Goofy to Pluto but elaborated that Goofy has “more of a human character”. Going by the site, “Goofy was created as a human character, as opposed to Pluto, who was a pet, so he walked upright and had a speaking voice.”
Here we have another difficult variable: Pluto.
Well, almost everyone is in agreement that Pluto is a dog. However, it is about Goofy that people have their own set of doubts. Pluto is undeniably a dog as it walks on four legs, wears a collar, and cannot speak.
But when it comes to Goofy, it walks straight and also carries other few traits like wearing clothes, talking to everyone else around him which makes it tough to classify him. The fact of the matter is that Goofy is an anthropomorphic dog that is he carries the attributes of human traits and emotions although he is actually not a human.
Fact-checking website Snopes.com which is a “well-regarded reference for sorting out myths and rumors” on the Internet has stated that Goofy is not a cow and hasn’t been inspired by a breed of Scottish cow.
It actually exposed some other site’s article which claimed that Goofy is a cow as the love interest of the character in the Mickey Mouse clubhouse is Clarabelle the Cow.
A frantic commenter on TikTok also says, “Did the person that wrote this ever what the Goofy move?!? Goofy has a son, that’s DOG!! Not a cow!!”
Bill Farmer of Disney who lent his voice to Goofy, Pluto, and Horace Horsecollar, shared his views about the Goofy character with Yahoo Entertainment in an interview in 2020.
While speaking to Yahoo Entertainment last year, he said, “He is NOT a dog.”
Farmer further explained, “He is not a dog. Pluto is a dog, but Goofy seems to be in the canine family in the same way that a wolf is not a dog, but they also are in the canine family. I think Canis Goofus is the technical Latin term for what Goofy is. He’s just Goofy.”
While some might argue that Goofy is actually a dog and not a cow, and some quite the opposite; it can be universally agreed that the popular character can most accurately be described simply, as a cartoon.