Stan (Monkey Island)

Stan (aka Smilin' Stan, according to the SCUMM Bar Cook) is a recurring character in the "Monkey Island" series of computer adventure games from LucasArts. Stan, Herman Toothrot and the Voodoo Lady are the only non-major characters to appear in every Monkey Island game. The voice of Stan was provided by Pat Pinney in "The Curse of Monkey Island" and Pat Fraley in "Escape from Monkey Island".

He is perhaps the only of the regular characters who has not established some sort of friendship with Guybrush Threepwood, and always behaves to him as a stranger, having a universal business-level relationship.

One of Stan's more noticeable characteristics is his hyperkinetic, nervous movement; he constantly taps his foot and gesticulates wildly with his arms while speaking. Stan's loud plaid jacket has a rather bizarre characteristic—the checkerboard pattern does not move with him, but remains static as if placed behind a transparent filter. This characteristic was originally a limitation of the pixel animation in "The Secret of Monkey Island" and became a self-referential joke in subsequent games.

Appearances

Stan's initial appearance was as a shady used boat salesman (satirizing the stereotype of the used car salesman) on Mêlée Island in "The Secret of Monkey Island". Over the course of the series, he has run a number of other businesses, each as dubious as his original career. The appearance of this eternal huckster is fitting: his outfit is vaguely pirate-like, but invariably an obnoxious blend of clashing colors and patterns. He always wears a huge hat that seems to be a cross between a traditional buccaneer's hat and a sombrero. He tries to overwhelm potential customers with a constant flood of patter while his arms wave distractingly. He rarely stops talking and never, ever admits that he has cheated a customer.

Stan is last seen in "The Secret of Monkey Island" when the ghost pirate LeChuck delivers a mighty punch to his eternally-flapping jaw. Stan is hurled out of sight, landing in the waters off the coast of Mêlée. Eventually he turns up again in "" as the proprietor of a used coffin shop on Booty Island—he turned to the coffin business because his customers are unable to come back and complain. We learn he also owned "Stan's Previously-owned Restaurant Supplies", and sold an ineffective flame-retardant apron to Rapp Scallion, who burned to death. In the course of the game, Guybrush Threepwood traps Stan inside one of his own cheap coffins. Strangely enough, Stan ends up in a crypt (which he himself designed) on Blood Island and manages to survive until Guybrush frees him in "The Curse of Monkey Island" a year later. Supposedly given "a new lease on life", Stan immediately begins selling life insurance from his new office in the crypt. Over the course of the game, Guybrush questions how Stan could have had business cards made while trapped within a coffin, purchases a policy, fakes his own death and collects a large payout; this convinces Stan to get out of the insurance industry. He resurfaces once again in "Escape from Monkey Island": the enterprising Stan has moved on to a condominium timeshare scheme on Jambalaya Island. His only action in the game to give Guybrush a three hour long sales-pitch, so that Guybrush can receive a voucher for a meal at Planet Threepwood.