Is Goofy really dumb?

[Hector]

Come to think of it, in most stories, he is not written as outright stupid, but as a weird guy that
does things in his own, unique way. The only stories where he is written as outright dumb are
those where Mickey solves a police case and, at the end of the story, after Mickey has explained
everything, Goofy is the only one who has not realized yet who the culprit is. I guess Goofy's
purpose in those stories is to make Mickey look an even greater genius by comparison.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Goofy isn't dumb in an *ordinary* way, that's for sure. The thing is that he's a ditz — he's got his own childlike worldview and refuses to acknowledge reality even when it flies in the face of said whimsical, askew worldview. That easily accounts for him never figuring out mysteries, for the record. Whether you call that dumb is mostly semantics.

I find that all other differences aside, Goofy is a lot like "Harry Potter"'s Luna Lovegood in those respects.

[RobbK1]

Goofy is a simple, country bumpkin. He is NOT stupid, but down-to-Earth and somewhat naive. He has his own simple cornspun intelligence. Sometimes, however, he doesn't see the forest for the trees, when he is fixated on some endeavour.

[deb]

Goofy is smart enough to know when other members of his family are dumb, like his Uncle Wombat. Goofy may run on his own type of logic, but he isn't dumb.

[Matilda]

Here is my favorite comment ever on this subject, from GeoX's post on Sky Island. In discussing Goofy, he quotes the following dialogue from The Sheriff of Nugget Gulch, in a panel where Goofy and Mickey are both riding cows:

"Yuh know, Mickey, outside of automobiles, cows make the best horses of any animal, except, mebbe, bicycles."

GeoX comments:
That's just sublime. I think "goofy" doesn't necessarily connote "stupid," per se, so much as it does "in a completely different mental realm," and the character works best when that's acknowledged.

[Ramapith]

I don't remember where the quote comes from, but I remember someone stating that Goofy isn't dumb—he just lives in a world that only now and then intersects with our own.

Quite a lot of stories (especially 1960s-70s) actively portray Goofy as dumb and even have him call himself stupid (!), but doing so is far too easy. In the better stories, Goofy is clumsy, eccentric as hell, and often unlucky as sin, but he's no fool—and sometimes he's the first to solve a problem by thinking outside the box.

[enemy1]

It depends on your definition of dumb. Everyone should be a little goofy at times.

[Spectrus]

I love Scarpa's portrayal of Goofy. Particularly in the Zenobia stories. He's not dumb at all in those. And sagas like "Lords of the Galaxy", "The Sword of Ice" and the Wednesday novels work on a reversal of the roles: Goofy is the hero and Mickey his sidekick (or his grounding element, if you like).

[deb]

Goofy just marches to the beat of his own drummer (who just happens to be playing an accordian sometimes). When he's written well, just when you're about to write the Goof off as clueless, he'll surprise you with an insightful comment, or his own Goofy logic will be exactly what's needed to solve a problem.
(I have read way too many of these things if I'm starting to understand Goofy. I'm not in trouble until I start understanding the quirks of Ellsworth or Eega Beeva...).

[Spectrus]

Offtopic but I like your new avatar deb

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Mar 15, 2018 18:48:45 GMT deb said:

Goofy just marches to the beat of his own drummer (who just happens to be playing an accordian sometimes).  

…I absolutely love this phrase. Thank you.