Why Can Goofy Talk But Not Pluto: Fans Try To Explain Disney's Toughest Question

It's a question that has haunted fans of the Disney cartoon universe for decades, so much so that there's even a scene in the 1986 coming-of-age classic "Stand by Me" devoted to it. Why can Goofy, a dog, speak, while Pluto, also a dog, cannot?

The question goes beyond simple speech. Goofy wears clothes, whereas Pluto doesn't. Goofy walks upright, while Pluto walks on all fours. Goofy essentially lives as a human being alongside Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and the rest of the inhabitants of their shared cartoon reality, while Pluto lives as a dog. But since they are both dogs, this raises some uncomfortable ramifications for those willing to consider the matter.

That includes a good number of people on the Internet, and there seem to be plenty of different theories about what we shall call the Goofy-Pluto Behavioral Divide. One such theory from Shyaporn Theerakulstit on Quora can be summed up in one word: evolution. This theory places Goofy and Pluto on different stages of an evolutionary chart that also includes such characters as Scooby-Doo and Barf (John Candy) from "Spaceballs."

Over on Reddit, where, as you can imagine, the question of the seemingly contradictory natures of Goofy and Pluto has been raised countless times, u/limbodog made the assertion that the two don't belong to the same species. "Pluto is a dog. Goofy is a goof," they stated, even claiming that this distinction is drawn in "the Disney rule book."

Other commenters, like u/madcapmuffin, seem to see it as more of a chicken-or-the-egg scenario that can only be observed empirically rather than explained: "Biped vs quadruped [sic], clothed vs naked. In the baffling section of the Disney universe inhabited by both realistic and anthropomorphic animals, a character will be more likely to speak the more human traits it displays. Pluto has not yet stood up on his hind paws and donned a shirt, so he shall retain his canine innocence."

That might be the safest approach to this question, since once you start trying to explain precisely why Goofy walks on two legs and Pluto does not, things can get pretty weird, as in this post from a since-deleted Reddit account: "You see, Pluto used to be just like Goofy. And he was Mickey's other friend, the smart one in fact. But after he had a brain tumour and had to overcome a difficult surgery to save his life, he lost every part of his wit, the ability to speak and to stand upright."

Needless to say, this theory has no chance of being official Disney canon. But it does go to show how any philosophical question, no matter how intractable, can be solved with a little bit of imagination.