Pinto Colvig was Goofy's original voice. Not surprisingly, Colvig later originated the character and voice of Bozo the Clown. Other Goofy voices have included Bob Jackman, Hal Smith and Will Ryan. Bill Farmer has been the official Goofy since 1987. After a successful return to television in the series Goof Troop in 1992, Goofy made a big-screen comeback in the 1995 animated feature A Goofy Movie.
The association of Goofy and sports began in the "How to" shorts of the 1940's, and was revisited in the early 1980's with the "Sport Goofy" program. Focused on youth and amateur athletics, Sport Goofy was named mascot of the French Olympic team, was endorsed by the German Sport Association, and was mascot of the International Tennis Federation Junior World Tennis Championship.
Goofy began his career as the befuddled friend of Mickey and Donald in a popular series of cartoons in the late 1930's. Shorts such as "How to Play Baseball" established him as an affable everyman, whose silly antics worked in comic contrast to a stodgy "straight" narration. In the 1950's, Goofy was portrayed as a bumbling suburbanite sometimes referred to as "George Geef".
The establishment of Goofy as an "everyman" character is made plain by the fact that all the ball players in How to Play Baseball are the Goof! How to Play Baseball was the third of a series of popular "how to" cartoons starring Goofy. Baseball has seldom been used in Disney shorts, with the notable exception of Casey at the Bat (initially a segment in Make Mine Music, 1948), and a sequel, Casey Bats Again (1954).
Goofy was twice nominated for the best short subject Academy Award for How to Play Football (1944) and Aquamania (1961).
Animator Art Babbit defined the characteristics of Goofy in 1935: "Think of the Goof as… an everlasting optimist, a gullible Good Samaritan… no matter what happens, he accepts it finally as being for the best, or at least amusing, He has music in his heart-even though it may be the same tune forever… he talks to himself because it is easier for him to know what he is thinking if he hears it first."
Goofy was officially named Goofy with the release of Orphan's Benefit in 1934. Until that time he had been called Dippy Dawg. Walt often described the type of physical humor used in the Studio's cartoons as being "goofy."
The series of "How to" cartoons in which Goofy starred from 1941 to 1965 were the most popular of his works. He appeared in almost two dozen of the shorts over the years.