On page 162 of his autobiography [2] Dr. John / Mac Rebennack wrote: "Goofer dust is a combination of dirt from a graveyard, gunpowder, and grease from them (St. Roch Cemetery, New Orleans) bells."
The result usually varies in color from "a fine yellowish-grey" to deep "black dust" depending on the formula, and it may be mixed with local dirt to conceal its deployment.
[citation needed] In the 1954 Cold War classic Night People, Col. Steve Van Dyke (Gregory Peck) spiked a bottle of absinthe with a packet of goofer dust.
The X-Files, in Episode 14 of season 7 (Theef), referenced the use of goofer dust by the vengeful father of a woman who died due to poor hospital care.
[citation needed] Goofer dust is referenced in the more popular series of short films "Scary or Die" in which a grandfather with a family history of dabbling in voodoo and the occult blows "Golfer dust" or as she describes to the watcher, "The ash of her loved ones; in which she says that the grandfather told her that if she felt love in her heart it would "Never die" and therefore hexes her to come back as the undead".
Colson Whitehead's 2016 novel The Underground Railroad speaks of a slaveowner hiring a witch to "goofer his property" to prevent anyone from escaping.
[citation needed] On their 2023 album Quaker City Quiet Pills, punk rock band The Dead Milkmen included a track called "Hen’s Teeth and Goofa Dust".