The long-standing debate surrounding one of Disney's most iconic characters has finally been settled by his voice actor.
Now, we all know that Mickey Mouse is, of course, a mouse. And that Donald Duck is quite clearly a duck. But what about Goofy?
On one hand, it feels like the answer is obvious. Originally introduced in 1932 as “Dippy Dawg”, surely the character is a dog, yeah? Or most certainly a canine... right?
But as any Disney fan worth their salt will quickly point out; Goofy’s species is complicated by the existence of Mickey’s pet dog Pluto, who doesn’t display any of the human-like qualities that Goofy does. Pluto walks on all falls, cannot talk, is treated like a dog, and is often seen in a doghouse or on a leash.
People have also long wondered if Goofy is perhaps a cow - due to his on/off-again romance with the similarly-proportioned Clarabelle Cow. (Who, just in case anybody was wondering and as the name suggests, is a definitely cow.)
To clear up the matter once and for all, Yahoo Entertainment spoke with Goofy’s longtime voice actor, Bill Farmer, and asked him to share his thoughts on the topic.
"Goofy is not a dog," Farmer responded with an air of absolute authority. "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."
Perhaps the clearest answer we're going to get in this matter is Famer telling the world: "He’s just Goofy."
So there you have it! From the word of the man himself, Goofy is a type of canine but very specifically not a dog.
Farmer has been the voice of Goofy since 1987, although the voice actor admits he initially auditioned for the role of Mickey himself.
“I thought I did a pretty good Mickey Mouse,” he told Yahoo before demonstrating his Mickey voice. “I can’t do Donald Duck very well. But Goofy was right in the wheelhouse. They liked that one, and since 1987 I’ve been the official voice.”
Farmer managed to put his stamp on the character with the release of 1992’s Goof Troop, which reintroduced the character as a bumbling single dad to the rebellious young Max.
Three years later he starred in A Goofy Movie, which remains a fan favorite over 25 years after its initial release.
Farmer says even after all these years, people still stop to tell him how much they relate to the father-son dynamic between Max and his Dad, and how it’s helped them come to terms with their own parental relationships.
Elsewhere in the interview, Farmer also shares his thoughts on another long-running conspiracy theory surrounding the character.
“We don’t know who [Max’s] mother was,” he jokes. “But I have my own theories: I think Goofy was married to Jessica Rabbit before Roger.”
So there you have it. Goofy is not a dog... he's just... Goofy.
