Goofy is a cartoon character from Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse universe. He is an anthropomorphic dog and is one of Mickey Mouse's best friends. His original concept name was "Dippy Dawg" in cartoon shorts created during the 1930s; then his name was given as "George Geef" or "G.G. Geef" in cartoon shorts during the 1950s (implying that "Goofy" was a nickname). Contemporary sources, show A Goofy Movie, now give the character's full name to be Goofy Goof.

Along with being not extremely intelligent, Goofy's main flaw is clumsiness.

Goofy's catch phrase is "gawrsh!" which is his usual exclamation of surprise.

Goofy History
Goofy first appeared in Mickey's Revue, first released on May 25, 1932. Directed by Wilfred Jackson this short movie features Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow performing another song and dance show. Mickey and his gang's animated shorts by this point routinely featured song and dance numbers. It begins as a typical Mickey cartoon of the time, but what would set this short apart from all that had come before was the appearance of a new character, whose behavior served as a running gag. Dippy Dawg, as he was named by Disney artists, was a member of the audience. He constantly irritated his fellow spectators by noisily crunching peanuts and laughing loudly, till two of those fellow spectators knocked him out with their mallets (and then did the same exact laugh as he did). This early version of Goofy had other differences with the later and more developed ones besides the name. He was an old man with a white beard, a puffy tail and no trousers, shorts, or undergarments. But the short introduced Goofy's distinct laughter. This laughter was provided by Pinto Colvig. He would serve as Goofy's voice actor until 1965. He was then replaced by (in order) George Johnson, Bob Jackman, Hal Smith, Tony Pope, Will Ryan, and currently, Bill Farmer. A considerably younger Dippy Dawg then appeared in The Whoopee Party, first released on September 17, 1932, as a party guest and a friend of Mickey and his gang. Dippy Dawg made a total of four appearances in 1932 and two more in 1933, but most of them were mere cameos. But by his seventh appearance, in Orphan's Benefit first released on August 11, 1934, he gained the new name "Goofy" and became a regular member of the gang along with new additions Donald Duck and Clara Cluck.

Goofy's breed of dog is a bloodhound. He has a teenage son named Max. He commonly wears a green hat, an orange shirt, blue jeans, and brown shoes. He is also a character from Kingdom Hearts.

Mickey's Service Station directed by Ben Sharpsteen, first released on March 16, 1935, was the first of the classic "Mickey, Donald, and Goofy" comedy shorts. Those films had the trio trying to cooperate in performing a certain assignment given to them. Early on they became separated from each other. Then the short's focus started alternating between each of them facing the problems at hand, each in their own way and distinct style of comedy. The end of the short would reunite the three to share the fruits of their efforts, failure more often than success. Clock Cleaners, first released on October 15, 1937, and Lonesome Ghosts, first released on December 24, 1937, are usually considered the highlights of this series and animated classics.

Progressively during the series Mickey's part diminished in favor of Donald and Goofy. The reason for this was simple. Between the easily frustrated Donald and the always-living-in-a-world-of-his-own Goofy, Mickey—who became progressively gentler and more laid-back—seemed to act as the straight-man of the trio. The Studio's artists found that it had become easier coming up with new gags for Goofy or Donald than Mickey, to a point that Mickey's role had become unnecessary. Polar Trappers, first released on June 17, 1938, was the first film to feature Goofy and Donald as a duo. The short features the duo as partners and owners of "Donald and Goofy Trapping Co." They have settled in the Arctic for an unspecified period of time, to capture live walruses to bring back to civilization. Their food supplies consist of canned beans. The focus shifts between Goofy trying to set traps for walruses and Donald trying to catch penguins to use as food — both with the same lack of success. Mickey would return in The Whalers, first released in August 19, 1938, but this would be the last short of the 1930s to feature all three characters.

Goofy next starred at his first solo cartoon Goofy and Wilbur directed by Dick Huemer, first released in March 17, 1939. The short featured Goofy fishing with the help of Wilbur, his pet grasshopper.

In the 1940s Goofy did a series of solo How to... cartoons in which he would demonstrate, clumsily but always determined and never frustrated, how to do everything from snow ski, to sleeping, to football, to riding a horse. Goofy had little dialogue in these cartoons, and a narrator (often John McLeish) was used. The Goofy How to... cartoons worked so well they that they became a staple format, and are still used in current Goofy shorts. Later, starting with How to Play Baseball (1942), Goofy starred in a series of cartoons where every single character in the cartoon was a different version of Goofy. This took Goofy out of the role of just being a clumsy cartoon dog, and into a more complex role of symbolizing the struggles of the common man. The epitome of this staid everyman role for Goofy was in the cartoon No Smoking (November 23, 1951) where Goofy, in a world of Goofys, struggles desperately with nicotine addiction. The cartoon, a divergence into an edgier subject (something Disney has always tried to avoid), is now rarely if ever seen due to popular culture's aversion to cigarettes.

Interestingly, in his cartoon shorts produced during the 1950s (popularly categorized as the "Goofy the Everyman" period), he is never referred to as "Goofy". While every cartoon continued with the opening, "Walt Disney presents Goofy", before each cartoon's title, he was usually called "George Geef" in the cartoons dialogue. When the stories featured Goofy as multiple characters, then he had numerous other names as well. In the Goof Troop series, a Halloween episode showed that his ancestor was "Gooferamus G. Goof"! Other Episodes of Goof Troop have Goofy playing roles of relatives which are parodies of famous people-such as "Goofin Hood" {Robin Hood}; "Frankengoof" {Dr.Frankenstein}; "Elliot Goof" {Elliot Ness}; and "Hopalong Goof" {Hopalong Cassidy}. In addition, the 50's Goofy shorts gave Goofy a makeover. He was more intelligent, had smaller eyes with eyebrows, had flesh-colored skin instead of black, and sometimes had a normal voice. He even lacked his droopy ears and white gloves in some shorts.

After the 1965 educational film Goofy's Freeway Troubles, Goofy was all but retired except from cameos and a brief appearance in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, as well as in the Sport Goofy in Soccermania which was originally intended to be released theatrically in 1984, but was aired as a 1987 TV special instead. In the 1990s Goofy got his own TV series called Goof Troop. In the show Goofy lives with his son Max and his cat Waffles, and they live next door to Pete and his family. Goof Troop eventually led to Goofy starring in his own movies: A Goofy Movie in (1995) and An Extremely Goofy Movie in (2000).

Goofy reverted back to his traditional personality on Mickey Mouse Works and appeared as head waiter on House of Mouse (2001 to 2004). Goofy's son Max Goof also appeared in House of Mouse as the nightclub's valet, so that Goofy juggled not only his conventional antics but also the father-role displayed in Goof Troop and A Goofy Movie. In both Mickey Mouse Works and House of Mouse Goofy also seemed to have a crush on Clarabelle Cow, as he asks her on a date in the House of Mouse episode "Super Goof" and is being stalked by the bovine in the Mickey Mouse Works cartoon "How To Be a Spy." Clarabelle has been noted as Horace Horsecollar's fiance in early decades, but according to comics from the 1960s and 1970's and more recent cartoons like "House of Mouse," "Mouseworks," and Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers, Goofy and Clarabelle seem to have affections for one another; perhaps as an attempt for Disney to give Goofy a girlfriend to match his two male co-stars.

Goofy also appears in the children's television series Mickey Mouse Clubhouse with his trademark attire and personality.

Goofy appeared in The Lion King 1½.

Recently, Goofy starred in a new theatrical cartoon short called How to Hook Up Your Home Theater, which premiered at the Ottawa International Animation Festival. The short received a positive review from animation historian Jerry Beck and then had wide release on December 21, 2007 in front of National Treasure: Book of Secrets.