At the risk of making us all think about Goofy having sex, the beloved 90s cartoon Goof Troop gave Disneys famously graceless canine a son, Max. Bizarrely, though, we never find out what happened to Maxs mother. Early Goofy cartoons often included the presence of his wife — although, bizarrely, she was both nameless and her face was typically obscured, Maris Crane-style.
So what happened to this mysterious character? Well, theories range from speculating that she ran off with the milkman who she was secretly having an affair with (really) or, more realistically, “she is probably dead.” Even more depressingly, one piece of evidence suggests that it may have been Goofy himself who was responsible for her untimely demise. In an early Goof Troop production document, it was mentioned that Goofy “lost the missus” when she fell into the Grand Canyon after he asked her to “step back a little further” for a photograph.
Interestingly, in the feature film A Goofy Movie, Goofy and Maxs road trip takes them to the Grand Canyon, where their car plummets into the gorge. Continue Reading Below Advertisement Continue Reading Below Advertisement
This scene is also the movies emotional apex, leading to the feuding father and sons reconciliation. But it really takes on a whole extra layer of significance if this is also the location where Maxs mother fell to her death. Of course, its more likely that this is just a total coincidence, and were putting way too much stock in the creative process that went into creating A Goofy Movie. There are also subtle suggestions throughout the show that Goofys parents are also dead, as is his unnamed sibling — although no one has suggested that these deaths were also the result of Goofys humorous, yet lethal, clumsiness … But …
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| Goofy | |
|---|---|
| Family | Goof family |
| Spouse | Mrs. Geef / Mrs. Goof (1950s) |
| Significant other | Clarabelle Cow (occasionally) Glory-Bee (’60s and ’70s newspaper strips) Zenobia (occasionally in Italian comics) Sylvia Marpole (An Extremely Goofy Movie) |
| Children | Max Goof (son) |
In the TV show Goof Troop and in both A Goofy Movie and An Extremely Goofy Movie, Goofy does not have a wife and is raising Max alone as a single dad. Contrary to widespread rumors, such as the false claim that Goofy said to Max that Mrs. Goof was “up there amongst the stars,” her name is never mentioned on-screen, and it seems that she does not exist in the TV series or movie universes whatsoever. Be that as it may, early production documents from Goof Troop reportedly list a horrible reason for the character’s strange exclusion from the series. Allegedly, the idea was floated that Mrs. Goof was posing for a picture on vacation at the Grand Canyon and accidentally fell off a cliff while Goofy was snapping her photo.
It’s safe to assume that Mrs. Goof probably died off-screen in an accident or by some other unexplained cause and is not hanging around somewhere sharing a nice cold glass of moo juice with the overly friendly milkman. While the scandalous theories circulating online may suggest otherwise, the likely explanation for her omission is that she was written out of the story because she no longer suited a narrative purpose. To be sure, the mysterious circumstances surrounding Mrs. Goof’s absence remain one of the greatest mysteries in the Disney universe to this day. Perhaps Disney will meaningfully explore her departure in the future, but until then, fans of Goofy and Max will always have plenty of wild Reddit theories to explore.
Goofy had a wife in early animations, but she suddenly disappeared without a trace. But while her absence is strange, the truth may be even stranger.
As the theory goes, Mrs. Goof was having multiple affairs behind Goofy’s back. When her husband finally uncovered her various indiscretions, he left her, or perhaps, she decided to leave him for either the milkman, the grocer or the cleaning man. Either way, this theory doesn’t explain why she abandoned her son, Max, who may not even be Goofy’s biological son if the speculation above is true. Nevertheless, her infidelity could spell out murder if Goofy was so enraged that he shoved her off a steep rock face and sent her plunging to her death.
In the 1953 animated short Father’s Day Off, Goofy is home from work on a Saturday watching his son while Mrs. Goof is out for the day. At this time, the doorbell rings and Goofy goes to answer it. Surprisingly, he is greeted with a big kiss on the lips by multiple delivery men, including a milkman, a grocer and a cleaning man. However, the latter only puckers his lips for a smooch but never actually receives one due to the house flooding with bathtub water. Theorists suggest that all three men stopped by on their daily routes and moved in for their usual kiss with Mrs. Goof out of habit and without thinking, not realizing that her husband would be the one answering the door.
Gawrsh, he’s clinically depressed!
In An Extremely Goofy Movie, Max, who was a little boy in Goof Troop and a high school student in the previous film, is going away to college. This throws Goofy into a crisis. Goofy trudges through his empty house after Max leaves at the beginning of the movie, goes into Max’s empty bedroom, and clutches Max’s teddy bear; the scene fades to black as Goofy begins to weep. The scene is 95 seconds long, and is played completely straight. There are no laughs to be found anywhere.
I know I keep saying this, but: This is Goofy we’re talking about here.
Goofy falls into a depression that indirectly causes a workplace accident. He is fired as a result. Then, Goofy goes to the unemployment office and learns that he is unemployable because he never graduated from college.
Goofy goes to college to undergo humiliating job retraining in his middle age, and there he finds Max, who is not pleased to see his dad. Max just wants to listen to ska music, wear baggy pants, creep on girls, and practice skateboarding for the College X-Games, an embarrassing 1990s sporting event that Max plans to compete in with his equally embarrassing friend Bobby Zimuruski, who is pretty much Poochie as played by Pauly Shore.
Goofy, overjoyed to be near his son again, recovers a bit and even gets a date with the college librarian. But Max is frustrated because he is less popular and worse at skateboarding than his father, so he tells Goofy off. This crushes Goofy; Max is everything to him. Goofy falls back into depression, stands up his new girlfriend and fails an important exam.
It’s a Disney movie, so Goofy and Max eventually reconcile, but this is still an astonishingly weird story. An Extremely Goofy Movie came out in 2000, eight years after the original run of Goof Troop. A lot of people were on the internet in 2000; they had blogs and message boards. The writers of this movie must have been aware of the fan speculation about Goofy’s dead wife, and it’s hard not to see the character’s implied-but-never-addressed history of loss and tragedy underlying his breakdown after Max goes to college.
The decision to tell a story about a depressed, grieving Goofy cannot have been unintentional. The movie’s writers could have done just about anything with this story, and the decision that the creative team landed on involves Goofy causing a dangerous workplace situation due to his inability to talk about his feelings of abandonment.
Goofy’s voice actor, Bill Farmer, was nominated for an Annie Award for his vocal performance in An Extremely Goofy Movie, and it’s a performance deserving of recognition. Farmer manages to weep convincingly, conveying the grief of a family man who has lost his family, alone in an empty house with nothing but the ghosts of his past to keep him company. But still in character.
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Some things are so tragic that they take time to process and recover from before we can discuss what happened, even with family and friends. Time might be able to heal all wounds, but there’s no schedule that shows exactly how long it might take. I respect that.
Content warning, my friends: We’re going to be discussing tragedy and existentially terrifying topics about trauma and loss. But, after nearly three decades, it’s finally time to talk about Goofy’s dead wife and missing family.
FAQ
Who is Goofy’s wife and Max mother?
Is Goofy married to Clarabelle?