is a
Fictional Character in
United States Television series ''
South Park ''. He and
Kyle trade places as the "leader" of the four main characters. Stan is the most normal of the kids, and is generally honest and well-meaning. He is somewhat more assertive than his best friend Kyle.
Strengths include:
Athletic, Reasonable, Open-Minded, Cute, Patient, Kind, Wise.
Weaknesses include:
Weak-Stomach, Conformist, Indecisive.
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 episode's title, "
The Biggest Douche In The Universe ." However, sometimes Kyle takes on this role, and it is Stan who is the gullible one — such as with the
Metrosexual trend in the episode "
South Park Is Gay! ", and again in the episode where he turns
Goth . 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, 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.
Stan had a girlfriend named
Wendy Testaburger for a time, although they never became very serious, as he used to vomit out of nervousness every time she approached him. They broke up in Episode 714, and Wendy has since begun dating
Token Black .
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 " (a geologist with the
United States Geological Survey ) and Sharon 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 , Sharon's brother.
Stan's pets have included a
Gay Dog named Sparky, and a killer
Goldfish .
He wears a dark blue hat with red trim and pom-pom, a brown coat, blue pants, and red mittens. Like the other boys, 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 episode 417 "
A Very Crappy Christmas ".
Since the beginning of the series, Stan and Kyle have had a running gag where when "
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 .
