Stan looking angry in the 'South Park' episode "The Woman in the Hat"Image via Comedy Central
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Shawn Van Horn
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Shawn Van Horn is a Senior Author for Collider. He's watched way too many slasher movies over the decades, which makes him an aficionado on all things Halloween and Friday the 13th. Don't ask him to choose between Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees because he can't do it. He grew up in the 90s, when Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond, and TGIF were his life, and still watches them religiously to this day. Larry David is his spirit animal. His love for entertainment spreads to the written word as well. He has written two novels and is neck deep in the querying trenches. He is also a short story maker upper and poet with a dozen publishing credits to his name. He lives in small town Ohio, where he likes to watch professional wrestling and movies.
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It has been a wild season this year on South Park (okay, we know it has technically been two back-to-back, but still), with Trey Parker and Matt Stone not holding back in their takedown of President Donald Trump and his administration, including Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. Still, South Park will always be at its best when it's about the kids. Parker and Stone know this too, and winked at it by having their pint-sized stars talk about how South Park sucks now. We'll always want more of Cartman, Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and Butters, but a recent episode seemed to forget just how old one of them actually is.
Stan Marsh Got His Age Wrong on "The Woman in the Hat"
South Park's Halloween episode this year was "The Woman in the Hat", and like is often the case these days, there is a lot going on to process. You've got President Trump demolishing the East Wing of the White House, Attorney General Pam Bondi with some brown, um, stuff on her nose, a creepy-looking woman in a hat who may just be First Lady Melania Trump haunting the White House, and Cartman, infected by the Six-Seven plague, sedated by Peter Thiel.
Amidst all of that chaos, with Randy Marsh having left Tegridy Farms, the family needs to find a new place to live, so they move into a retirement home with Stan's grandpa. Of course, this is the last thing any kid would want, and after the South Park kids bemoan how political South Park has become, Stan begins his own meme token company. And just why would he do something like that? Because his family situation has made him very desperate. He even tells his best friend, “I have to do something, Kyle. I’m 9 years old, and I live in a retirement home!” That's all understandable, except for one major goof. Stan Marsh is actually supposed to be 10 years old, and South Park has a two-episode plot about his first double-digit birthday to prove it.
Stan Had an Existential Crisis When He Turned 10 in a Previous Season
In 2011, Stan Marsh turns 10 in the Season 15 episode "You're Getting Old." It begins with him at his birthday party, the number 10 planted on the top of his cake. There's a running gag about how the music kids listen to today literally sounds like shit to adults, but when Stan listens to a CD he got as a present, he hears shit too! This leads to a visit with the doctor, who calls him a "cynical asshole." Stan becomes completely miserable, seeing shit everywhere, with all the childhood wonders that enthralled him the day before now bringing him down. Worst of all, he looks at his friends and sees piles of shit now as well, which pushes him away from the ones who care about him the most. It's a rather depressing episode about growing up, but if you've hit middle-aged and tried to listen to the popular music of today, you might understand the feeling.
The plotline is continued in the following episode, "Ass Burgers", where Stan is diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome, but Cartman being Cartman, he hears "Ass Burgers", which leads to him creating his own burger joint where the secret ingredient involves shoving hamburgers down the back of his underwear. Yum!
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Posts By Justine Kraemer Nov 17, 2025As for Stan, he's visited by a Matrix-like parody of people who tell him that he's in a simulation, so to live in it, he gets drunk and the world of shit disappears. Now, even Adam Sandler is hilarious! As the episode ends, Stan reunites with his friends, but he's still drinking alcohol just to go out with them. Damn, Matt and Trey, aging hasn't gone well for you, huh?
The Characters of 'South Park' Never Age
Stan's cake at his birthday part on the 'South Park' episode "You're Getting Old"Image via Comedy Central
With this knowledge, you can look at this year's "The Woman in the Hat" episode and see a simple goof when Stan Marsh mentions that he's nine. After all, "You're Getting Old" and "Ass Burgers" were from 14 years ago, so perhaps they simply forgot Stan had a birthday that made him 10. With how many episodes they've done, it would be an easy mistake and an understandable explanation.
But what if Matt Parker and Trey Stone knew exactly what they were doing and, fully aware of the episodes where Stan turned 10, decided to say that he was 9 anyway? Did they have him say his age for a reason? In almost every animated series, whether it be South Park, The Simpsons, Family Guy, or numerous more, the characters never age, and the kids stay exactly the same. It's a little different, however, for South Park, because although Stan, Kyle, Kenny, Cartman, Butters, and their classmates all stay 9-year-olds, and have been so ever since the late 90s, as the world around them keeps changing. We've seen every U.S. President since Bill Clinton represented in the series. Serious topics such as 9/11, terrorism, and wars have been explored too. South Park is not in a bubble like The Simpsons and Family Guy are, for the most part, where their changing world usually only results in newer pop culture references or Homer and Marge getting a flat-screen TV for the opening credits.
South Park is today's best social satire, and it stays that way by showing our strange world through the eyes of children. The most growth the kids ever do is move from third to fourth grade in the Season 4 episode "Fourth Grade", but they will always look and sound this way. They will never grow up and never age. Stan Marsh turned 10 once, but that was only for those two episodes. After that, everything reverted back to the way it always was, and there's no alcoholic kid, but Stan, like everyone else, remembers what he's been through. Their memories aren't wiped. Instead, the residents of South Park are perpetually stuck, unable to age, as society changes at an alarming pace, leading to kids who now act older than they look, whether its Butters losing his innocence and gaining a mean edge, or Stan seeing that everything is shit. Perhaps his age in "The Woman in the Hat" was a simple writing error, or just maybe Trey Parker and Matt Stone had something deeper to say and wanted to see if we were paying attention.
New episodes of South Park debut on Paramount+ on Wednesdays in the U.S.
South Park
Like Follow Followed TV-MA Animation Comedy Release Date August 13, 1997 Network Comedy Central Showrunner Trey Parker Directors Adrien Beard Writers David A. Goodman, Nancy M. Pimental, Kenny Hotz, Philip Stark, Dave Weasel, Dan Sterling, Susan Hurwitz Arneson, Trisha Nixon, David R. Goodman, Tim Talbott, Pam Brady, Robert Lopez, Dani Michaeli, Kyle McCulloch, Karey Dornetto, Jonathan Kimmel, Jane Bussmann
9 Images
Kyle arguing with other students while Jesus stands in the background in South Park season 27 episode 5
Donald Trump and Satan departing Air Force One from South Park
A Labubu doll from South Park
Kristi Noem with prisoners behind her in South Park season 27 episode 2
Mr Mackey dressed in an ICE uniform in South Park season 27 episode 2
JD Vance and Donald Trump standing together in South Park season 27 episode 2
The characters in South Park, especially Cartman, look shocked while staring a phone
Cartman looks sad wearing a Woke is Dead t shirt on South Park season 27
Canadian wave a Canadian flag on a battlefield in South Park season 27Close
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Trey Parker
Eric Cartman / Stan Marsh (voice)
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Kyle Broflovski / Kenny McCormick (voice)
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