Goofy Explained: What Kind of Animal is This Disney Icon?

We appear to finally have an answer to a question that has plagued human beings for generations.

On the August 4 episode of Leigh Livingstone and Tim Iffland’s Popcorn Podcast With Leigh and Tim, the voice of iconic Disney character Goofy at last revealed the species behind this animated delight.

Is Goofy a dog? Is Goofy a cow? What the heck kind of animal is Goofy?!?

“He’s not a dog,” explained Bill Farmer, who has since provided the voice of Goofy since 1987.

“But he’s a canine. So it’s kind of like a wolf is not a dog but it’s a canine. Same thing. ‘Goofus Canis,’ that’s what he is.”

We guess this clears things up.

Barker, though, has made similar remarks in past years and yet this debate raged on and on.

In 2021, in response to a fan debate on the topic, Farmer Tweeted: “Goofy is certainly not a cow! Neither is he a dog!”

Go back to 2020 and Farmer related this same sentiment in a discussion with Yahoo! Entertainment, stating at the time:

“Goofy seems to be in the canine family in the same way that maybe a wolf is not a dog, but they also are in the canine family. He’s just Goofy.”

The creature as he’s known today made his debut as Goofy in the 1939 movie Goofy & Wilbur.

Farmer made his debut as the voice of Goofy in the cartoon Disney’s Doggone Valentine, a special that aired during the holiday in February 1987.

(And, we must say, certainly seems to imply that Goofy is a dog, based on that unique and pun-laden title.)

Goofy, of course, wears clothes and has two teeth that peek out of his mouth.

Such characteristics differ greatly from Pluto, Mickey’s pet who is definitely a dog, because Pluto walks on all-fours and can’t talk and generally behaves like a regular dog.

Farmer, meanwhile, currently portrays Goofy in the ongoing Disney series Mickey Mouse Funhouse and is set to reprise the role in a reboot of similar show, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, which is scheduled to premiere 2025.

“I’ve done probably close to 3,000 or 4,000 different projects for Disney over the last 33 years as Goofy and Pluto,” the actor said in a video shared on the YouTube in 2020.

“It made me think, well, I love dogs. There’s probably got to be a lot of dog people out there that would love to find out about working dogs and what they do.”