I present the finest actor of this, or any other generation.

Hey!  It’s Saturday morning (technically), so why not a post about my personal favorite cartoon character and patron saint of drunk people, Goofy?!

From humble beginnings did my favorite dog begin.  First, he appeared in Mickey’s Revue(1932), immediately establishing himself as a young black actor to watch!  What?  Look at him!  His skin is black!  Oh…that’s fur.  Sorry.

Anyways, racial tension aside, he was a bit player in this cartoon short under the name Dippy Dawg.  Yeah, if I was an actor, and that was my name, I’d be in my fucking trailer.  He was, however, voiced by the man who would give Goofy his distinctive folksy voice, Pinto Clovig.  No, I’m not making that name up.  Someone named their son Pinto.

For several years afterwards, Goofy would play the good natured third to Disney’s above the title credit grabbing Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.  Two real standouts for the trio come to mind.  Lonesome Ghosts(1937), where the group plays a bunch of inept spirit hunters, and the excellent Mickey’s Trailer(1938) where the gang heads out for the open road with Goofy as the driver and Donald as a lazy, shiftless layabout.  Really!  Watch that cartoon and tell me I’m wrong.  That duck bastard does nothing but sleep and bitch in that cartoon!

Goofy wouldn’t get his own cartoon short for another seven years.  That came with Goofy and Wilbur (1939) with Goofy on a fishing trip along with his favorite bait, a cricket named Wilbur.  The cartoon is funny enough, but the character wouldn’t begin to shine until Goofy’s Glider(1940) where he got a new format and a new voice!  George Johnson takes over for Pinto here, and does a fine job of it, though Pinto Clovig would return sporadically to voice everyone’s favorite dog.  The change in format meant that the era of Goofy’s “How To” cartoons were to begin.  And what magnificent cartoons they are!

For me, these are the best cartoons in history.  There are several benchmarks here, not just in animation, but in humor in the round!  The Art of Skiing (1941, and, consequently, the fist time the “Goofy Yell” is heard), How to Play Baseball(1941), How to Swim(1942), and Hockey Homicide (1945) are all some of the funniest seven minutes you could hope to spend.  My personal favorite is How to Play Golf(1944).  This short features what has to be to funniest bull in cartoon history!

In the 50s, these cartoons would take a different view of the world, and came out with such gems as Tomorrow We Diet!(1951) , No Smoking(1951), Teachers Are People(1952), and, my favorite (because it makes me cry…sue me!)  Fathers Are People(1951).  Here, the narrator is gone in place of simply watching Goofy try to deal with everyday hardships on his own.  Also of note during this period is the Buyer Award Trophy winning short Motor Mania(1950). This one’s hard to forget because it’s the one where Mr. Walker turns into MR. WHEELER (Motorist)!

Sure, a younger generation remembers him from Goof Troop(1993) (I couldn’t stand it), and the much better A Goofy Movie(1995)where voice actor Bill Farmer started filling in his voice(and very well, I might add).  That’s okay, though.  Why I call him the patron saint of drunks is, he’s clumsy as shit, he runs into everything, falls down, gets tangled up…but does he ever get really hurt?  No!  Just like most drunks!  And, he looks good doing it.  Just like me!

If you look around the internet, you can find the various shorts I’ve mentioned.  Or, better yet, find the Disney Treasure Collection:  The Complete Goofy and secure it for yourself.  It’s still one of my favorite DVDs, and if you give it a chance, I’m sure it’ll be yours too.

And, remember:  “There’s somethin’ wrong here…”