Goof Troop



Goof Troop is a cartoon from the early Nineties, inspired by the most well-known series of Classic Disney Shorts featuring Goofy. In this series, Goofy is the father of an 11-year old named Max, and lives in the suburbs. Goofy also lives next door to longtime Disney antagonist Pete (who in this version has been turned into less of a villain and more of a total Jerkass), his wife Peg, and his two kids, PJ and Pistol. Even so, Goofy is still just as klutzy and, well, goofy as he was in any of the Disney shorts.

Slapstick is the flavour of the day, with all four main characters Goofy, Max, Pete and PJ reguarly taking a lot of comedic punishment and shaking it off with Toon Physics and being Made of Iron.

This series led to the creation of two movies - A Goofy Movie and An Extremely Goofy Movie. Word of God is that yes, they are in the same canon, despite the absence of Peg and Pistol, and the difference between the TV series and the movies like Goofy's and Pete's houses and their location.

Tropes
"Max: Aw, P.J, fishing with your dad! What could be more fun? P.J: Eating glass! You got any idea what fishing with him is like?!"
 * Absolute Cleavage: Peg had her moments of this, and on a Disney cartoon as well.
 * Abusive Father: PJ really is afraid of his father, who punishes him for childish pranks, manipulates him, insults and belittles him to his face, and in front of other people, and makes him do dirty jobs and a lot of manual labour. PJ is repeatedly shown counting the days until he can leave. PJ often calls his father 'sir', while Max always calls Goofy 'dad'. The movies enhanced this trope.

"Pete: (to PJ) I'm sorry about all those times I sent you to bed without seconds! Peg: What's wrong with that boy? He's barely touched his thirds..."
 * This has been Flanderised in fanon to many fans portraying Pete as physically as well as emotionally abusive.
 * Achievements in Ignorance: In the Christmas Episode, a bear has Goofy pinned against the fireplace and Max tells him to grab the shotgun above it. Goofy accidentally picks up the mop right next to it and attempts to fire it. It works.
 * Action Girl: Peg and Pistol to a certain degree.
 * Adults Dressed as Children: Goofy and Pete in "Take Me Out Of The Ball Game".
 * All Girls Like Ponies: Pistol (until the horse trashes her room).
 * Alliterative Family: Pete, Peg, PJ, and Pistol.
 * Alliterative Name and Repetitive Name: Goofy Goof, Peter Pete and Peter Pete Junior (PJ).
 * Amazingly Embarrassing Father: Goofy.
 * Annoying Younger Sibling: Pistol.
 * Anthropomorphic Objects: An expressive fire truck. No other vehicle has a face.
 * Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other: Pete and Peg have a few of these moments, Episodes 51 and 61 in particular.
 * Bad Bad Acting: PJ in 'Slightly Dinghy'. When Max wants PJ to ask his dad to take him fishing, he fits PJ with an ear piece so that he can tell PJ what to say, and reads him a text from a father's day card, to try and sway Pete emotionally. PJ reiterates everything he says in emotionless monotone. It still works, though.
 * Balloon Belly
 * Berserk Button: Okay, so he doesn't exactly go berserk, but Max consistently, and always, hates it when somebody tells him he looks/acts/talks just like his dad.
 * Beware the Nice Ones: Despite being honest and kind, PJ has shown on several episodes that it's not wise to make him angry. Also Peg, who can punch out guys twice her size.
 * Big Eater: Pete and PJ especially:

"Pete: Somebody put ce-ment in our tailpipes!"
 * Big Foot: Encountered during a ski trip. A female who fell in love with Goofy.
 * Book Dumb: Pete.
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall: Pete, PJ, Goofy, Max and the How To Narrator.
 * Brother Chuck: Coupe Hatchback, Max and PJ's new friend, disappears without further mention after one episode, as does Rose Deckenbloom, PJ's crush.
 * Bumbling Dad: Goofy. Duh.
 * Catch Phrase: Pete ends a lot of his sentences with an exclamation of "See!?"
 * P.J hardly ever calls Pete 'dad'; he almost always calls him 'sir'.
 * Cats Are Mean: Pete was originally a cat. This would explain why he is antagonistic to the main dog face character.
 * Chekhov's Gun: Goofy's jar of fresh air from "A Goof Of The People".
 * The Chew Toy
 * Christmas Episode: Have Yourself a Goofy Little Christmas (A Goof Troop Christmas).
 * Class Reunion
 * Clear My Name: This was done several times.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Goofy.
 * Come Back, My Pet: In one comic, Pete replaces his dog with a cardboard robot guard dog after their house gets robbed. Turns out "Card" is actually programmed to let its creator in to rob the house again.
 * Comedic Sociopathy: Goofy is almost completely unaware of how much trouble his own cluelessness and clumsiness causes Pete.
 * Concert Climax: Shake, Rattle & Goof.
 * Also the end to A Goofy Movie.
 * Conspicuously Light Patch
 * Consummate Liar: Pete, even though he often gets found out, eventually.
 * Cooking Duel: Goofy and Pete; figuratively and literally. From collecting garbage to actual cooking.
 * Corrupt Corporate Executive: Mr. Sludge in "A Goof of the People" is a parody of this trope, who happily partakes in over the top illicit business deals while running a factory that makes money just by pumping out waste into Spoonerville, and he can never remember his only employee's name.
 * Counterfeit Cash
 * Criminal Doppelganger: One episode involved Goofy being an exact lookalike for a member of a counterfeiting gang.
 * Cross-Dressing Voices: Max Goof, voiced by the late Dana Hill.
 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Goofy and Pete had their moments of this.
 * Cut and Paste Note: Played with.
 * Damn, It Feels Good to Be a Gangster!
 * A Day At the Bizarro: The episodes in which Goofy reads to Max the history of various ancestors.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Peg.
 * Max as well, and to some extent, PJ.
 * Demoted to Extra: Despite Goof Troop having Max, PJ, Goofy and Pete all getting equal attention, the films are mostly about Max, and, to a slightly lesser extent, Goofy. In An Extremely Goofy Movie, PJ gets more screentime, but Pete appears for about four minutes.
 * Don't Look Down
 * Do They Know It's Christmas Time?
 * Dinosaurs Are Dragons: Bubbles's mother is able to breathe fire.
 * Dumb Muscle: Tooth & Nail.
 * Dysfunctional Family: Or families in this case. The Goof family seems to be closer than the Pete family, though.
 * Everything's Better with Dinosaurs: Bubbles, who hatches out of an egg Max and PJ find.
 * Family Business: During several episodes it's clear that Pete intends PJ to take over his business some day.
 * Fat Bastard: Pete.
 * Feud Episode: "Tub Be Or Not Tub Be" after Max thinks PJ betrayed him.
 * Feuding Families: The Goof and Pete families on several occasions.
 * Fiery Redhead: Peg and Pistol make up a mother-daughter combo of this trope.
 * The Film of the Series: As stated above, it's an arguable thing on whether or not A Goofy Movie fits.
 * Force Feeding: In "Axed By Addition", Max straps Pete to a device that feeds him whether he gets a math question right or wrong.
 * Well, it smacks him in the face with a raw egg if he gets it wrong. I don't know that he's necessarily getting any in his mouth.
 * Former Teen Rebel: Goofy was a notorious biker.
 * Four-Fingered Hands
 * Frankenstein's Monster: In the episode "Frankengoof". Looks almost identical to Pete.
 * Full Name Ultimatum: When Peg is angry at Pete.
 * Fully Dressed Cartoon Animals
 * Fur Bikini: Peg wears one in "Peg Of The Jungle".
 * Furry Confusion: As per usual with Disney's Funny Animal cartoons...
 * Gainaxing: Peg's breasts did this on a number of occasions.
 * Gender Equals Breed: Pete's kids.
 * Genki Girl: Pistol.
 * Gentle Giant: PJ is what you get when the Gentle Giant is just 11 years old. He's not too bright, overdominated, insecure - and can bench-press 150lbs, punch out bullies and takes on most of his father's manual labour. He seems totally unaware of his own strength.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: In "Take Me Out Of The Ball Game", PJ and Max try to hide the fact that they did not make the baseball team by stopping their fathers from seeing any of the games. One thing they do is fill their dads' cars' exhaust pipes with cement. Pete makes note of this:

"Pete: Can we get the bunny with the bent ear, ma-ma?"
 * There's an episode titled "Wrecks, Lies, and Videotape".
 * In the episode "Puppy Love", Pete says 'sexy'.
 * Not to mention all of the Gainaxing with Peg's breasts, especially when she wore a skimpy outfit.
 * There was a joke relating to a product called a "master-baiter". Surprising how much slid through the radar, ESPECIALLY considering it's a Disney cartoon. What episode was that exactly?
 * In "Tub Be Or Not Tub Be" we see that PJ, an 11-year old boy, owns a switchblade. Audio gags which kids might not even get are one thing, but Max actually picks it up and says, "This is PJ's knife." He knows it's PJ's knife, which means he's seen it before. How the hell did they get that in?
 * Goofy Print Underwear: Pete.
 * Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress
 * Groin Attack: Happens often to Pete and PJ.
 * Hartman Hips: Peg.
 * Haunted House
 * High School Hustler: Max, usually.
 * Honest John's Dealership: Honest Pete's Used Cars.
 * Hot Mom: Peg.
 * Hypno Fool: In at least one episode Pete tries to hypnotise Goofy into doing something for him, but since he's... well... Goofy, he still doesn't understand his commands and screws up.
 * Hypocrite: Pete, sometimes Max.
 * Hypocritical Humor: In 'Lethal Goofin'', Max berates Douglas for hiding behind Tooth and Nail's brawn, and using people bigger than he is to do his fighting for him... right before he tells PJ to "get 'em".
 * I Can See My House From Here: Goofy says this in the episode where he and Max become firemen.
 * I Gave My Word: PJ. Which makes it almost impossible for him when he makes promises that end up conflicting. But he still keeps his word.
 * Identical Grandson: All past ancestors of Goofy and Pete look identical to them. Goofy's relatives all look alike, aside from Max and Debbie.
 * Imaginary Friend: Inky, a character from one of Pistol's books, who turns out to be
 * Incest Is Relative: Max seemed a little too happy to see his cousin, Debbie, and says that "she's hotter than any babe in the Pharaoh's (gang)". He later pretended to date her as part of a plan to eat at a fast food restaurant, despite the fact that PJ could easily have done it.
 * Puppy Love. PJ going on a pretend date... with his own mother... As part of a plan to get another girl to like him, but still weird.
 * It Runs in The Family: Despite Max being embarrassed by his dad, he is just as clumsy at times, and in the movie adopts his father's laugh. Even though PJ is a lot more honest and kind than his father, he still can sell cars just as well. Also, every male member of the Pete family has a phobia of heights.
 * Jerkass: Pete, in many episodes. Arguably Max, who has hit PJ a couple of times and told him that he never wants to see him again. And in the movie he was an ungrateful liar.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Also Pete, whenever the writers are feeling a little more generous.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Pete again, when the writers are feeling evil.
 * Jim Cummings: Voice of Goofy's overweight, irritable neighbour, Pete.
 * Just Eat Gilligan: Many episodes' problems could have been solved if Pete just stayed as FAR AWAY as possible from Goofy. Episode 58 comes to mind as the most prominent example.
 * Keep Circulating the Tapes: For some strange reason, only 10 episodes of the series have ever been released on home video;7 of these are only available on a set of three tapes released in 1993. Have fun finding them.
 * Lampshade Hanging: In "Goofin' Up the Social Ladder", Goofy remarks that he gets along well with dogs, and is almost viewed as one of the family. Obviously, this is a reference to how odd it is that Goofy looks like a dog but acts like a human, and is seen by some viewers as the "missing link" between dog and human.
 * Laser-Guided Karma: Pete.
 * Last-Name Basis: Pete mostly just refers to Goofy by his last name. Possibly Pete himself: he is barely ever called Peter. But Pete could just be a shortened version of his first name.
 * On that same note, Pete could just as easily be shortening Goofy's name, as they are close friends, rather than using his last name. Really, ignoring the last names entirely seems to work out best.
 * Lego Genetics
 * Lemony Narrator: During the how-to skits, the narrator often gets irritated at Goofy's inability to perform the simplest tasks.
 * Lethal Chef: Don't eat Goofy's "Goofy Burgers". You'll regret it.
 * Like You Were Dying/Mistaken for Dying: In "Terminal Pete", Pete believes that he only has a few hours to live after hearing from the doctor about his "terminal illness", and so he needs to spend the last hours of his life playing stuntman. However,
 * Limited Wardrobe: Pete and PJ may sometimes remove their jackets, but for the most part everyone wears the same thing all of the time, with some exceptions.
 * Little Miss Snarker: Pistol.
 * Love At First Sight: PJ falls in love with Rose Deckenbloom as soon as he sees her reading poetry.
 * Made of Iron: Falling from great height does little damage.
 * The Mafia
 * Malaproper: Goofy, quite often. Pete on occasion as well.
 * Manipulative Bastard: Pete.
 * Mickey Mousing
 * Missing Mom: Max's mom. The movies also dispose of Peg and Pistol.
 * Mistaken for Badass: Goofy was once known as "the Skull". Though apparently nobody knew it was short for numbskull.
 * Mistaken for Murderer: In "For Pete's Sake", Pete reads a letter from Goofy and thinks that Goofy is out to kill him. It turns out that
 * Mistaken for Pregnant: Peg, in And Baby Makes Three, which came as a slight surprise to Pete.
 * Motor Mouth: Pistol.
 * The Movie: A Goofy Movie and its sequel, An Extremely Goofy Movie are spin-offs from the series, taking place years later (the latter of which, when Max is 18 years old and attending college).
 * Muck Monster: Mr. Sludge in "A Goof of the People" is a combination of a Muck Monster and a Corrupt Corporate Executive. Later in the episode, the toxic waste Sludge places in Goofy's garage to ruin his name ends up forming a much more traditional Muck Monster. The Muck Monster is defeated by Goofy's jar of fresh air, which also clears Mr. Sludge of the toxic waste on his body, making him have a change of heart.
 * The Musical: The movie.
 * Mythology Gag: Whenever a character learns how to do something from a book, there's a brief segment in the style of Goofy's classic "How To" shorts, narrated by a dapper sounding Interactive Narrator. And on that note...
 * Narrator: The "How To" Narrator.
 * Negative Continuity: Goofy and Pete's houses, as well as Pete's Boat, get damaged or destroyed frequently, but they are always back to normal by the next episode. Goofy also became mayor once, and then it was never mentioned again.
 * Nice Hat: Played with physically, but averted personality wise with Max's magic hat.
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed: Ronald Strudelnasher, a parody of Arnold Schwarzenegger. An action movie star and 'The Discontinuator', obvious "Terminator" parody. "Ronald" is even an anagram of "Arnold".
 * Non Sequitur Thud: Pete. Often.


 * Not Now, Kiddo: Pete, frequently with PJ, sometimes with Pistol.
 * Not-So-Imaginary Friend: A character in Pistol's favorite book.
 * Obnoxious In-Laws: Peg's uncle, Bob Sparrowhawk. Loved by PJ. Disliked greatly by Pete. Whilst Bob isn't actually deliberately mean to Pete, he makes things hard for him.
 * Parental Favoritism: Pistol is daddy's little girl, whereas Pete has called PJ a peasant to his face.
 * Reversed for Peg, who is much calmer and nicer to PJ, but will commonly yell at Pistol.
 * Though she would yell at PJ whenever he was mean to Pistol.
 * Petting Zoo People: The Dogfaces.
 * Pillow Fight
 * Playing Sick: PJ in "Axed By Addition".
 * Poor Communication Kills: PJ's main problem in "Tub Be Or Not Tub Be".
 * Pretty in Mink: Peg has a fur-trimmed jacket.
 * Pro Bono Barter: Pete pays Max and PJ for mowing the lawn... in paperclips. Max and PJ are not amused.
 * Property Line
 * Pygmalion Snapback
 * Real Men Wear Pink: Pete has purple pajamas and pink bunny slippers. And the luxury sports car he wanted in one episode was colored Cherry Pink.
 * The Renaissance Age of Animation
 * Rob Paulsen: Voice of PJ, the shy, chubby son of Pete.
 * The Scream: PJ lets one in "Max-imum Insecurity" when he sees that the stolen perfume bottle that he and Max are hiding has gone missing; the camera cuts to space, where PJ's scream is loud enough to be heard from that far away.
 * Screw the Rules, I Have Money: Pete often tries to bribe his way out of many situations.
 * Series Continuity Error: In spite of the fact that it is established that Goofy had not seen Pete or Peg since graduation, and that Max and PJ first met at the age of eleven after Goofy returned to Spoonerville and moved in next door to the Petes, several episodes make references to Max growing up in Spoonerville. And in the Christmas special, Pete declares that every year Goofy wrecks stuff, although that should technically have been Goofy and Max's first Christmas in Spoonerville.
 * Not only that, but the episode "Have Yourself a Goofy Christmas" ("A Very Goofy Christmas") from the movie "Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas", which is said to chronologically precede the cartoon series, while featuring Goofy, Max and Pete as next-door neighbours, they live in two very different houses in a very different suburb than the houses and suburb featured in the series or in the movie(both the series and the movie feature different houses and suburb). And Max appears to be 5 years old at the time and Pete's wife and kids are nowhere to be found. And nothing implies Pete has a wife and kids, which he ought to have. One has to wonder how Goofy and Max ended up living from a suburban house to a trailer and then back to a suburban house again.
 * According to Episode 15 "Wrecks, Lies & Videotape", Goofy never had a decent vacation in his life. The movie averts this as it's revealed that Goofy's recent past generations took their sons fishing, by taking them across the country to Lake Destiny. Goofy appears to have lots of money as to not only take Max across the country and back, but to go to a carnival, fancy hotels or motels, buy somewhat expensive food, visit a cave, go to a baseball game and lots of other stuff all while traveling across the country.
 * Shaming the Mob: In an episode that involved a parody of Frankenstein's Monster that resembled Pete, Peg asked the angry mob just what the monster had done to them, any of them, that would warrant them trying to kill it. They couldn't think of a single reason to justify harassing the monster, and consented that what they were doing was shameful.
 * Shorter Means Smarter: Max in Lethal Goofin.
 * Shout-Out: PJ makes references to Star Wars, Mad Max and ET the Extraterrestrial, amongst other films.
 * Pete's daughter, Pistol, is a reference to the late basketball player Pete Maravich.
 * Show Within a Show: "The Mutilator" series (also had a spinoff called "Mutilator on Main Street") complete with Hockey Mask and Chainsaw.
 * A Simple Plan
 * Sixty-Five-Episode Cartoon
 * Skyward Scream: "...on account'a because I got conned by a couple of CONNNNNNNNNNS!!!!"
 * The So-Called Coward: Despite being very cautious of most things, PJ has stood up to bullies for Max, and leapt in front of a speeding truck to push Max out of the way when he was paralyzed with fear. PJ also leapt onto the back of a moving RV to rescue Max when he was kidnapped.
 * Social Services Does Not Exist: Averted. Max had to live with the Pete family for a short period of time, after his principal deemed that life with Goofy is too unstable. But for the most part, Goofy is a loving if somewhat clueless father, and Pete is the abusive one.
 * Something Completely Different: Plots can range from dealing with day-to-day school life, to finding fire breathing dinosaurs, to having real imaginary friends from outer space, to family reunions.
 * Spelling Bee: "Educating Goofy".
 * Spoiled Brat: Pistol.
 * Springtime for Hitler: Pete wins ownership of a racehorse who can't run, so he gives away shares of ownership in the horse to people who buy cars from his lot. He gives away more shares than he should, but figures its okay since the horse can't possibly win. Goofy ends up fixing the horse's foot, and then unknowingly sabotages all of Pete's attempts to prevent it from winning.
 * Stab the Salad: Goofy was just using that chainsaw to cut down a loose tree branch.
 * Star-Making Role: In voice-acting terms, Peg was this for April Winchell, being the first Disney TV lead she played, and played more ever since.
 * Stout Strength: PJ in "Lethal Goofin'", also Pete on several occasions.
 * Theme Naming: The Pete family. Pistol and Peg are named after incarnations of Pete, and PJ shares his father's name.
 * This Is My Side: When Goofy and Max temporarily had to stay at the Pete residence.
 * Title Montage: The theme song is accompanied by clips from various episodes of the show. There are actually two openings, though repeats tend to favor the latter one, which added clips from some later episodes like "Queasy Rider" (Goofy accidentally walking into a table of pizzas) and "Great Egg-Spectations" (Pete getting flamed by a dinosaur).
 * Title Sequence Replacement: All re-runs on Toon Disney used the second intro (see Title Montage above for more info). Inverted with the three-episode best-of DVD, though; the first intro is on that DVD.
 * Too Dumb to Live: Goofy on many MANY occasions, with Episode 58 being the most extreme example; Goofy approaches a pair of Mafia henchmen, who are in the process of killing someone, because he thought they were tailors, which puts both his and Pete's lives in danger. Pete is this way at times too; considering how many occasions he purposefully includes Goofy in his schemes, despite all the problems he causes.
 * Toon Physics: It's Goofy. He wouldn't survive one episode if Toon Physics weren't in play.
 * Trash of the Titans
 * Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Pete & Peg.
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: Goofy and Pete.
 * Welcome to the Big City: Max and PJ have a tough time in "Big City Blues".
 * Welcome to the Caribbean Mon: The Capcom-developed Super NES version of the game.
 * "Well Done, Son" Guy: PJ's relationship with his dad Pete can be described as this.
 * What Could Have Been: The original plan was for Goof Troop and Quack Pack to share the same universe, separate from the Carl Banks inspired universe, with the cast interacting with humans. Disney overruled the creators, forcing them to replace the humans with "dog noses", the nickname animators gave for the extras with noses like the Beagle Boys. They were still able to use humans in Quack Pack.
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: Towards the end of "Unreal Estate", Goofy gets catapulted into the mountains, and that's the last we see of him for the rest of the episode. Obviously nothing happened to him since he's in all subsequent episodes (because he's the star), but still weird, and a tad eerie.
 * White Gloves: PJ, Max, Pete and Goofy (although PJ has been seen without them whilst wearing some outfits).
 * Women Are Wiser: Peg, on several occasions.
 * World of Funny Animals
 * Wrongly Accused: In one episode, PJ found out that his father was spying on Goofy & Max, and setting traps throughout a race course in order to win a race. PJ then tries his best to deactivate all of his father's traps so that Max and Goofy would be able to win, but fails and is found out by Max, who accuses PJ of cheating without listening to anything he says. He still helps them to win, and subtly reveals that Pete had been spying on them. Max realizes that PJ hadn't betrayed him, and apologizes for not believing him at first.
 * Pete's also been mistaken twice for a criminal; first time he was kidnapped by robbers but the police thought he was in on the crime, second time he was mistaken for a notorious burglar and arrested.
 * You Are Grounded: Pete grounds PJ often, and threatened to ground him for life if he failed his Math test.
 * Zany Schemes: Usuall Perpetrated by Pete and/or Max.