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.

[Deleted]

Mar 12, 2018 23:15:49 GMT RobbK1 said:

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.

He was originally created to be that, but maybe Goofy is actually a secret genius, which could explain why Gilbert is so intelligent! My theory is Goofy is actually not stupid at all, he just is a silly, goofy guy.

Oh, and by the way, I know this is off topic, but would his full name in the comics be Goofus D. Dawg? Maybe his mother’s maiden name was Goof, and he later took that name when he went into show business.

[RobbK1]

Nov 1, 2024 22:24:44 GMT @whitewater said:

Mar 12, 2018 23:15:49 GMT RobbK1 said:

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.

He was originally created to be that, but maybe Goofy is actually a secret genius, which could explain why Gilbert is so intelligent! My theory is Goofy is actually not stupid at all, he just is a silly, goofy guy.

Oh, and by the way, I know this is off topic, but would his full name in the comics be Goofus D. Dawg? Maybe his mother’s maiden name was Goof, and he later took that name when he went into show business.

So it seems that you agree with me that Goofy is not "stupid", but silly and absent minded at times, and sometimes ignorant of some things.  Goofy's legal name is unclear.  He was originally named "Dippy Dawg". But he was also named "Mr. Geef" in several short films, in which he played an everyman, with a wife and son.  So, as his first name "Dippy" sounds like a nickname, his real name is still debatable. 

[Deleted]

Nov 1, 2024 23:34:54 GMT RobbK1 said:

Nov 1, 2024 22:24:44 GMT @whitewater said:

He was originally created to be that, but maybe Goofy is actually a secret genius, which could explain why Gilbert is so intelligent! My theory is Goofy is actually not stupid at all, he just is a silly, goofy guy.

Oh, and by the way, I know this is off topic, but would his full name in the comics be Goofus D. Dawg? Maybe his mother’s maiden name was Goof, and he later took that name when he went into show business.

So it seems that you agree with me that Goofy is not "stupid", but silly and absent minded at times, and sometimes ignorant of some things.  Goofy's legal name is unclear.  He was originally named "Dippy Dawg". But he was also named "Mr. Geef" in several short films, in which he played an everyman, with a wife and son.  So, as his first name "Dippy" sounds like a nickname, his real name is still debatable. 

Yes, we agree on that.

I think his real name could be George, or Goofus, it even appears ‘Goofy’ is a nickname.

[Ramapith]

Nov 1, 2024 22:24:44 GMT @whitewater said:

Oh, and by the way, I know this is off topic, but would his full name in the comics be Goofus D. Dawg? Maybe his mother’s maiden name was Goof [...]

The name "Goofus D. Dawg" originated in Pat McGreal's "Blotman" stories as the name for a pompous, playboy billionaire version of Goofy that existed in a parallel dimension—obviously, this snooty and aristocratic fellow would want to go by a full, impressive-sounding name like the rich, worldly gentleman he is.

In this formulation, Pat took "Goofus" from this Bill Walsh story, in which Mickey names an exotic flower the "Goofus flower," noting that he's naming it after Goofy. Pat had earlier used Goofus as Goofy's first name in the title of another story around that time. And of course, the "D. Dawg" in Goofus D. Dawg represented the name Dippy Dawg.

Now, Pat originally used Goofus D. Dawg only for Goofy's dimensional double; he didn't intend it to be "our" Goofy's full name too. But a few years later at Gemstone, our creative team needed to give his full name in some story—and it occurred to me and translator Jonathan Gray that if in Blotman's world, the Mickey equivalent shared his full name with ours (as he does), then the Goofy of "our" world could just as easily be Goofus D. Dawg as well, especially if his first name had already been loosely established as Goofus.

And obviously, if one side of his family has Dawg as a surname, then the other could just as well have Goof, easily canonizing all historic relatives from various stories.

Our team has since carried this on at various publishers to a point where it feels pretty natural; in our "Zodiac Stone" localization, Goofy's heirloom trunk was mentioned as being filled with family memorabilia from both Dawgs and Goofs.

But hey—even I don't intend to establish that Goofus D. Dawg is the only possible full name for Goofy. There are lots of stories in which characters address him as "Mr. Goof," and while the one 1940s Walsh story used Goofus, other 1940s newspaper strips have referenced the full(er) names "A. Goof" and "Gideon El Goofola."

Admittedly, I do like the idea that if Goofy's dad is a Dawg and his mom a Goof, he'd use both last names at varying times, switching off, not wanting to show preference to either parent—because he's so fond of both of them.

MM: "Gosh... doesn't that make things awful confusing, Goofy?"
GO: "Well, natcherally! But all I gotta do is explain it... an' then it's simple!"