For those who watched a rainy Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Thursday, you may have caught a glimpse of several Disney characters on a float made to look like a Disney Magic Cruise ship.
Among them was Goofy, Mickey Mouse’s best friend, who even appeared as his own giant balloon in the 1992 parade, according to a Macy’s parade fan website.
As he danced and waved on the float Nov. 28 with Mickey, Minnie, Donald Duck and others, Goofy may have made some viewers ask the age-old question: what exactly is Goofy?
For years, fans have questioned if Goofy is a dog, like Mickey’s dog, Pluto. Goofy may look like a dog, with his long ears and snout, but he talks, walks on two legs, and wears clothes and shoes (unlike Pluto who behaves very much like, well, a dog).
Bill Farmer, who has voiced Goofy since 1987, has said that while Goofy is “not a dog,” he is still part of the canine family.
In a 2020 interview with Yahoo Entertainment, Farmer asserted, “(Goofy) is not a dog,” adding “Pluto is a dog.”
He compared Goofy’s relationship to being a dog and a canine to that of a wolf’s — adding it’s the same “way a wolf is not a dog.”
Farmer insisted Goofy is “just Goofy.”
Some speculation around the character’s species stems from his ambiguous look, his ability to talk (which Pluto does not have) and his romantic involvement with Clarabelle Cow.
Yahoo Entertainment points out that over the years, Goofy has become less and less dog-like as his personality has taken shape.
Goofy made his firs appearance in 1932, starring in “Mickey’s Revue,” followed by a newspaper comic strip under the name “Dippy Dawg.”
Pluto, on the other hand, made his debut in 1930 and has never been able to speak. This quality has differentiated the two canines from the beginning.
Farmer said that if he had to specify the Latin term for what Goofy is, he’d settle on “Canis Goofus.”
