Stanley "Stan" Marsh is the most normal of the kids, and is generally honest and well-meaning. He is somewhat more assertive than his best friend Kyle, although he and Kyle trade places as the "leader" of the four main characters.
Stan is also notably the skeptic of the group, and is often preachy and very critical of popular trends. This is evident in:
However, sometimes it is Kyle who takes on the role as skeptic, and it is Stan who is the gullible one, most notably in Episode 912 "Trapped in the Closet", in which he is drawn into the scientology cult. Stan's and Kyle's personalities while not interchangable, are nonetheless very similar. While Stan is roughly autobiographical of Trey Parker, Kyle is "equivalent" to Matt Stone. Indeed, like Parker, Stan is a proud Denver Broncos fan.
Stan had a girlfriend named Wendy Testaburger with whom he broke up in Episode 714; he used to vomit every time she tried to talk to him. Wendy is now Token's girlfriend.
Family
He is the son of Randall "Randy" Marsh, a geologist with the United States Geological Survey, and Sharon Marsh, a receptionist at Tom's Rhinoplasty. He has a sister, Shelley, named after Trey Parker's sister, who beats him up on a regular basis and often calls him a "turd", and a gay dog named Sparky.
He once owned a killer goldfish (from a parallel universe). On top of being a geologist, his father is a Nobel Prize winner and former boy band member. Stan also has a wheelchair-bound grandfather who always refers to Stan as "Billy", and also frequently implores Stan to kill him. Stan is also the nephew of Jimbo (a hunter) who is Sharon's brother.
Appearance
Stan wears a dark blue hat with red trim and poofball, a brown coat, blue pants, and red mittens. Stan rarely takes off his hat, but underneath is shaggy black hair, which is shown on the episodes Fun With Veal. He also apparently has blue eyes, as noted by Kyle when Butters draws their cartoon forms in Episode 417 "A Very Crappy Christmas".
