Stan Marsh
Stan is also notably the skeptic of the group, and is often preachy and very critical of popular trends. This is evident in episode 407 "
Cherokee Hair Tampons" when he challenged the character Miss Information and her shop of
alternative medicine, in episode 504 "
Super Best Friends" when he helped battle
David Blaine's
suicidal cult, and in episode 615 where he accuses psychic
medium John Edward of being "
The Biggest Douche in the Universe." However, sometimes Kyle takes on this role, and it is Stan who is the gullible one â€" such as with the
metrosexual trend in the episode "
South Park is Gay!", the Chinpokomon episode, and again in the episode "
Raisins," in which he turns to the
goth lifestyle. Stan's and Kyle's personalities tend to be similar, but are not quite interchangeable.
An avid animal lover, Stan resists the influence of his uncle Jimbo to hunt in "
Volcano", has tried to save baby cows in "
Fun With Veal," and attempted to return a goat to its rightful owners in "
Osama Bin Laden Has Farty Pants". Although well-intentioned, these interventions often lead him and his friends into serious trouble.
For the first seven seasons of the show, Stan's girlfriend was
Wendy Testaburger. In the early days of the series a running gag would be that Stan would throw up out of nervousness whenever Wendy spoke to him. As the show progressed, however, the Stan-Wendy storyline diminished greatly. In the penultimate episode of the seventh season, entitled "Raisins", Wendy announced that she had broken up with Stan, who eventually learned to cope with his loss.
Stan's recent interest in Wendy was apparent in the episode "
Follow That Egg!" when he grew jealous of Kyle working with Wendy. He, however, decided to show her up by telling her off at the end of the episode.
Stan is the son of Randall "
Randy" Marsh (a geologist with the
United States Geological Survey) and Sharon Kimble Marsh (a receptionist at Tom's
Rhinoplasty). He has an older sister, Shelley, who bullies him on a regular basis. Stan's crotchety 102-year-old wheelchair-bound grandfather, Marvin Marsh, calls him "Billy" and often attempts to coerce Stan to kill him. He is also the nephew of hunter
Jimbo Kern, Randy's half-brother.
Stan's Parents share their names with Trey Parker's real-life parents, Sharon Parker and Randolph "Randy" Parker Jr.
Stan's pets have included a
gay dog named Sparky, and an evil
goldfish.
He wears a dark blue hat with red trim and pom-pom, a brown coat, blue pants, and red mittens. Like Kyle and Kenny, Stan rarely takes off his hat, but has been shown on those occasions when he removes it (the first being during the episode "
How to Eat with Your Butt") to have shaggy black hair like his father. He also apparently has blue eyes, as noted by Kyle when
Butters draws their cartoon forms in "
A Very Crappy Christmas".
Since its beginning, the series has had a running gag where when
Kenny is killed, Stan will announce "Oh my God, you/they killed Kenny!" Kyle will then respond: "You bastard(s)!" Stan once used this to find Kyle in
Super Best Friends. He went looking for Kyle to try and stop him from killing himself. When he saw that Kenny had killed himself, Stan shouted out "Oh my God, they killed Kenny!" and Kyle shouted out "You bastards!". Stan heard Kyle and kept shouting this out until he was lead to Kyle.
Stan's often-used catchphrase during the early seasons was "Dude, this is pretty fucked up right here" which originated in the
second Spirit of Christmas short.
In many episodes, Stan often sums up the episode's main points in a small speech that often begins with, "You know, I learned something today." Kyle sometimes fills this role is some episodes.
Stan also has a habit of holding the bridge of his nose and closing his eyes tightly when frustrated.
Stan often says "Aw, aw!" when he's upset. This is perhaps a reference to BASEketball, in which Trey Parker often used this line. In the sixth season if the boys were trying to get Butters or Tweek to do something and they wouldn't do it Stan would say "Kenny woulda dunnit" which would convince them to do it. .
Stan is quite athletically proficient, and is regularly the captain or star player of his school's sports teams. He was the quarterback of the school football team in "
Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride" and the pitcher of the baseball team in "
The Losing Edge". He was also number 4 on the South Park dogeball team that won the world championship.
Although not as musically inclined as Kyle or Cartman, Stan did manage to write and perform a song about the importance of
hybrid cars in "
Smug Alert!". He can play the guitar rather well, though lyrics do not appear to be a strong point. (In a perhaps deliberate contrast, his "alter-ego"
Trey Parker is the musical half of the South Park creator duo.) Like Kenny and Kyle, he plays the violin and also managed to write a song with
Elton John entitled "Wake Up Wendy". Stan is also, according to the episode "
You Got F'd in the A", a talented line dancer, instructed by his father.
* Voiced by
Trey Parker and is considered Parker's representation in the South Park universe.
* Has
asthma* A fan of the
Denver Broncos. This parallels Trey Parker, who also liked the Broncos as a child.
* Doesn't have as much of an adversarial relationship with Cartman as Kyle and Kenny do.
* According to
The South Park Scriptorium and the episode "
My Future Self 'n Me", Stan's birthday is
October 19 (the same as Trey Parker.)
* Is the oldest of the four boys.
* In the
Japanese language dub of the show, he is voiced by
Hiro Yuki.
