Goofy Phone

Black, Blue, Disney, Orange, Table Top, Touch Tone, USA Telephone

Another addition to the Disney Room, this phone lives here, but doesn’t reside in the museum.

 

Of Disney studio animators, Art Babbitt is most regarded for the creation of the Goofy character, while original concept drawings were by Frank Webb. In a 1930s lecture, Babbitt described the character as “Think of the Goof as a composite of an everlasting optimist, a gullible Good Samaritan, a half-wit, a shiftless, good-natured colored boy and a hick”.[3]

In the comics and his pre-1992 animated appearances, Goofy was usually portrayed as single and childless, though unlike Mickey and Donald he didn’t have a steady girlfriend; the exception were the 1950s cartoons, in which Goofy played a character called George Geef who was married and at one point became the father of a kid named George Junior. In the Goof Troop series (1992–1993), however, Goofy was portrayed as a single father with a son named Max, and the character of Max made further animated appearances until 2004. This marked a division between animation and comics, as the latter kept showing Goofy as a single childless character, excluding comics taking place in the Goof Troop continuity. After 2004, Max disappeared from animation, thus removing the division between the two media. Goofy’s wife was never shown, while George Geef’s wife appeared—but always with her face unseen—in 1950s-produced cartoon shorts depicting the character as a “family man”.[4]

In the comics, Goofy usually appears as Mickey’s sidekick, though he also is occasionally shown as a protagonist.[5] Goofy lives in Mouseton in the comics and in Spoonerville in Goof Troop. In comics books and strips, Goofy’s closest relatives are his nephew Gilbert[6], his adventurer cousin Arizona Goof (original Italian name: Indiana Pipps)[7], who is a spoof of the fictional archaeologist Indiana Jones, and his grandmother, simply called Grandma Goofy.[8]

Goofy’s catchphrases are “gawrsh!” (which is his usual exclamation of surprise and his way of pronouncing “gosh“), along with “ah-hyuck!” (a distinctive chuckle) that is sometimes followed by a “hoo hoo hoo hoo!”, and especially the Goofy holler.

According to biographer Neal Gabler, Walt Disney disliked the Goofy cartoons, thinking they were merely “stupid cartoons with gags tied together” with no larger narrative or emotional engagement and a step backwards to the early days of animation. As such, he threatened constantly to terminate the series, but only continued it to provide make-work for his animators.[9] Animation historian Michael Barrier is skeptical of Gabler’s claim, saying that his source did not correspond with what was written.[10]