Stan Pines

Stanford "Stan" Pines, better known as Grunkle Stan, is Mabel and Dipper's sly, greedy, and cranky great uncle. He runs the Mystery Shack, a tourist trap full of questionable "oddities." While he's giving tours or sleeping on the couch, Dipper and Mabel are usually sneaking out to explore the town’s mysterious secrets, though Grunkle Stan may have some secrets of his own.

Early life
As a young boy, Stan was bullied frequently. To make matters worse, his father made him take up boxing lessons. Fortunately, the boxing classes eventually paid off; while waiting in line to see "Grandpa the Kid," Stan left-hooked a man who was attempting to steal the purse of a younger Carla "Hotpants" McCorkle, starting his relationship with her. In the 1970s, the two were frequent attendants of their favorite diner, the 50's-themed Juke Joint. However, their relationship soon ended when Carla instead fell for a hippie musician, Thistle Downe, and, according to Stan's "hallucinationy" reports, her shorts immediately transformed into bell bottoms, and she and her new boyfriend blasted off in a frenzy of rainbows into the sky. Later, Stan drove Thistle's van off a ravine. He blames this loss on hypnotic messages hidden in Thistle's music.

Several decades ago, Stan moved into a house outside the Gravity Falls forest and later transformed it into a tourist trap, naming it "The Mystery Shack." At a garage sale, he stole many wax figures and set up a wax museum, and, though not to his knowledge, was frequently pranked at night when the cursed statues came to life. After the wax museum stopped bringing in money, he closed it and locked the figures away for ten years, while they plotted revenge on him. At unknown points in his life, Stan went to jail in Colombia, where he formed a one-sided friendship with his inmates, started a business selling vacuum cleaners, which he named Stan Vac,  and developed a feud with Gideon Gleeful. At some point, he came into possession of 1.

During the twins' visit
Sometime during the month of June, Stan's great niece and nephew were sent from Piedmont, California to stay with him for the summer. Stan immediately puts them to work in his house-turned tourist trap, the Mystery Shack. Stan's other employees include Soos and Wendy. At the end of "Tourist Trapped," it's revealed that he has a secret door behind the vending machine in his house.

In "The Legend of the Gobblewonker," Grunkle Stan wants to take Dipper and Mabel to the Lake Gravity Falls to bond with them, and he states that the guys from the lodge won't go with Stan because they don't "like or trust him". Though he reveals in a way that he does love Dipper and Mabel, since he does make them fishing hats, meaning that he does want to spend time with them for once. Dipper and Mabel try to get away from Stan's fishing idea by going with Soos to find the Gobblewonker so they can get $1,000 in a photo contest. Stan gets upset that Dipper and Mabel would rather go on a monster hunt than go fishing with him, so he tries to find his own fishing buddies around the lake. This doesn't turn out right for Stan, since everyone just thinks of his jokes as annoying or creepy. Later when Dipper, Mabel, and Soos return from their voyage, Dipper and Mabel asks if they can bond with Stan, feeling bad that they left him earlier. Stan accepts their request, and they all end up having the quality family time Stan has been waiting for.

After the twins and Soos discovers several wax figures in an abandoned room in "Headhunters," Stan tells them that he used to run the Gravity Falls Wax Museum, until he forgot all about it. Mabel uses some old wax to make a wax figure of Grunkle Stan, which he then shows to the town. When Stan's promised free pizza is revealed to be a lie, the crowd goes on a rampage. Later that night, Wax Stan is murdered and his head is gone. While Dipper and Mabel try to figure out the murderer, Stan prepares a funeral. After failing to find out the culprit, the twins, Soos, the wax figures, and Stan hold the funeral. Stan tearfully leaves the room, and Soos follows him. It is revealed that the murderers are the wax figures themselves, who wanted revenge on Stan for forgetting about them for ten years. Mabel and Dipper defeat them, even though they destroyed Stan's parlor. When they tell Stan what happened, he just laughs them off, thinking they have over-active imaginations.

In "The Hand That Rocks the Mabel," when the twins and Soos see a commercial for the psychic Gideon Gleeful, Stan tells them that he is his arch enemy and has been nothing but trouble for him since he arrived in Gravity Falls. He also says they're not allowed to see Gideon's show, but Dipper and Mabel find a loophole and go anyway. Later, Stan learns that Mabel and Gideon are dating, and disapproves. He goes to talk to Gideon's dad, Bud Gleeful, about it, but he changes his mind when Bud says that they can pool their profits. Stan even tells Mabel she has to marry Gideon. After Mabel breaks Gideon's mystic amulet, Gideon forces his dad to call off the deal. Stan then steals a clown painting and yells, "Try and catch me, suckers!"

In "The Inconveniencing," Stan falls in love with a classic romance film, The Duchess Approves, and becomes glued to the television as he watches it.

When Grunkle Stan takes the twins to Greasy's Diner in "Dipper vs. Manliness," Mabel learns that he has a crush on waitress Lazy Susan and tries to improve his appearance and behavior in order to appeal to his love. After nothing works, Mabel decides that she should present her uncle to Susan as is, and is successful. However, Susan's incessant phone calls make Stan regret ever expressing feeling for her.

He has a party at the Mystery Shack in "Double Dipper" to attract a younger audience for the Mystery Shack.

It is revealed that Grunkle Stan despises Pioneer Day in "Irrational Treasure," and he later gets trapped in a wooden stock for yelling at Steve, a mechanic. While Stan is locked up, Gideon throws tomatoes at his eyes, and he gets a notebook from Pacifica Northwest. and writes,"You Stink," with his mouth.

In "The Time Traveler's Pig," Grunkle Stan opens up the Mystery Fair to earn more cash, and rigged the Dunk Tank by making the target connected to the seat very stiff, causing Stan to not fall no matter how hard the people threw. When Dipper and Mabel time travel, the twins pass the Mystery Shack from which a younger Stan briefly emerges. Later, one of the members of the Time Paradox Avoidance Enforcement Squadron fires his blaster at the target, which causes Stan to fall off the seat and into the water, satisfying the crowd of people and making them cheer.

In "Fight Fighters," Stan is seen hanging out with Soos and the twins for a while before Robbie challenges Dipper to a fight, which Stan encourages. Later, Mabel learns that Stan is afraid of heights, despite his attempts to cover it up, and tricks him into letting her help him overcome his fear. When he and Mabel are attacked by Rumble McSkirmish, who is pursuing Robbie at the time, at the water tower, he is so relieved to have survived that he no longer fears high altitudes.

In "Little Dipper," a man is at Stan's door when Dipper, Mabel, and him were watching TV, he answers the door and thinks that the tax collector is here for him, so he runs and gets a bag of full of cash behind the painting that he stole from a restaurant (Mystery Shack Mystery) and starts looking for a trap door on the stones on the wall. Soon learning that it wasn't them and that they are the "Winninghouse Coupon Savers Contest" and that they are there to give him $10,000,000, since his dream was to "possess money" had finally come true, so he signs. but Gideon comes out saying that he just signed the Mystery Shack to him, but on the paper he signs "SUCK A LEMON LITTLE MAN!" instead. Throughout the episode Gideon tries taking the Mystery Shack away from Stan but ultimately fails. So, when Gideon has shrunken Mabel and Dipper and has them in his possession he calls Stan saying that he has them and that he has to give up the Mystery Shack in order to get them back but Stan doesn't believe him so Gideon says that he would text Stan a photo of them, but Stan thinks Gideon isn't even speaking English and ends up hanging up the phone. Though Gideon goes to the Shack to shrink Stan and take over the Shack, before Stan and Soos are setting up the mirror maze that is supposedly gonna bring him lots of cash, and that was Soos's idea that Stan is taking credit for. Once Gideon gets into the Mystery Shack he finds Stan, but since Stan is in the maze Gideon can't find him but soon breaks every single mirror he sees and finds him. He corners Stan and tries to zap him, but meanwhile tiny Mabel and Dipper start tickling him and Stan says that he is a good enemy that maybe their rivalry has gone too far, so he "rolls" Gideon out of the shack.

In "Summerween," Grunkle Stan steals items from the Summerween Superstore by using his Smoke Bomb, and tells the twins that the townspeople love Halloween so much they celebrate it twice a year. Later a group of kids who are trick-or-treating rings the doorbell of the Mystery Shack, and Stan comes to the door with a skeleton mask. This scares the kids, who ran away, but two kids remained. Stan asks them why they weren't scared, and the kids reply they've been watching horror movies since they were two years old. For the rest of the episode, Stan tries to scare the two kids. He first pulls out "guts" from his stomach, but the kids weren't scared because the guts were just sausages. Then Stan had a pig come out of his stomach, but it was just tucked under his shirt the whole time. Stan feels shameful because he used to scare every children in the previous Summerweens, so he took a shower to wash off the shame. The two kids, who wanted candy from Stan, walked inside the Mystery Shack to find him. They finally get scared and runs away after they saw Stan naked, satisfying Stan. When the twins come home from trick-or-treating, they were disappointed they couldn't eat any of the candy they collected (most of it fell in a creek). Stan shows them two big bags of candy he got, and the family, along with Soos, Wendy, Candy Chiu and Grenda, watch a horror movie at the Mystery Shack for the remainder of the night.

In "Boss Mabel," Stan's relentless attempts at making money and poor treatment of his employees get on Mabel's nerves, and she decides to confront him about it. So, the two bet that whoever makes more money in three days' time—Stan on vacation or Mabel running the Shack—is in charge for the rest of the summer. After heading out, Stan lands a spot competing on the game show Cash Wheel, and, despite doing very well at first, ends up losing all $300,000 dollars he earns after failing to correctly guess the final puzzle. Consequently, Stan offers Mabel the chance to be the new boss in accordance with their bet, but she declines, although she still makes him perform the apology dance he promised to do if he lost the bet.

In "Bottomless Pit!," Grunkle Stan has his first major encounter with the supernatural side of Gravity Falls as he, Soos, and the twins fall down a bottomless pit and tell stories to pass the time. In Dipper's tale, Stan makes fun of Dipper's frequently cracking voice and develops an obnoxious, female voice after his nephew dumps a voice-altering formula in his coffee. In his own tale, Stan wins a major football game with the help of his robotic sidekick, thereby teaching a group of football players a lesson and winning a gigantic trophy. In Mabel's story, Mabel observes his excessive lying habit and grows more and more annoyed by it to the point of forcing him to be honest, via a set of Truth Telling Teeth. Stan's truthfulness is unfiltered, however, and gets on the twins' nerves, and Mabel finally decides to remove the teeth from her uncle's mouth after he almost gets himself arrested. As the group nears the end of the pit, they simply come out the top, though Stan falls back in shortly afterwards.

In "The Deep End," on the hottest day of the year, Stan, Dipper, Mabel, and Soos go to the town pool to cool off. When Stan tries to get his ideal lawn chair, he is horrified when he finds that Gideon has taken it from him. As he tries to reclaim his seat, he is put into pool jail for roughhousing, and Gideon foils his other attempts. At night, Stan decides to go to the pool extremely early to get the chair before Gideon shows up, but is enraged upon finding out that his young foe yet again anticipated and ruined his plan ahead of time, at this instance by gluing him to the pool chair.

In "Carpet Diem," when Dipper and Mabel are fighting over a new room they found in the shack, Stan takes the key and tells them that whoever sucks up to him the most will get the room. He makes them run around and do chores and make things for him, all the while rewarding them 'suck-up points'. Eventually though, after Dipper and Mabel switch bodies, he catches Dipper (Mabel) spying on the sleepover and thinks that Dipper is at 'that creepy age where you spy on girls' and drags Mabel over to a room where he tells her all about puberty. When she tries to sabotage Dipper by calling Stan a stupid old jerk, he decides that Dipper would get the room and gives Dipper(Mabel)the key and sends her out.

In "Boyz Crazy," Stan listens to Dipper talk about how Robbie got Wendy to go on the date with him and relates it to something that happened to him and his old sweetheart Carla "Hotpants" McCorkle. He helps Dipper uncover a hidden message in the song, and drives Dipper to Lookout Point to help him tell Wendy about it. When Wendy breaks up with Robbie, he calls it "a victory for every man who is either too weak or fat to play an instrument." After Wendy gets mad at Dipper for asking her to go bowling, Stan tells Dipper that he could always just go bowling with him, and that he was trying to do the right thing even if he destroyed a relationship.

In "Land Before Swine," Stan kicks Waddles out of the house against Mabel's wishes. Because Waddles was outside, a pterodactyl took him and Stan lies to Mabel about it, saying that the pterodactyl came inside the house to catch him. Eventually Mabel figures out that Stan had lied and refuses to talk to him. She only forgives him after he saves Waddles and punches the pterodactyl in the face.

In "Dreamscaperers," Gideon sends Bill Cipher into Stan's mind to find the combination to the safe containing the deed to the Mystery Shack. Cipher is prevented from doing so by the efforts of Dipper, Mabel and Soos, so Gideon uses dynamite to blow open the safe. With the deed in hand, he then forces Stan and the others out of the Shack, and has it demolished via a wrecking ball.

Stan and the rest of his group are stuck living with Soos and his grandmother in "Gideon Rises," after the events following "Dreamscaperers." He attempts to reclaim the Mystery Shack after Gideon unveils his plans to no avail. During the course of the skirmish, however, he unintentionally discovers the truth behind Gideon's powers. Later, after Gideon's arrest, he swindles Dipper out of 3. His secret underground laboratory is a series of rooms containing computers and electronic equipment deep beneath the Shack. He keeps 1 down there and uses the unmarked pages of the three books together to activate an illuminated, triangular doorway of sorts. The nature of this device, and Stan's intentions, are currently unknown. When the three books are gathered he says either "Finally, I have them all" or "Finally, we have them all" but there is no consensus on what he actually says.

Personality
Grunkle Stan, is a gruff, selfish, cynical, and greedy salesman who has been managed to set up his tourist trap in a town with enough unsuspecting customers to sell worthless scamming knickknacks to. His flair for showmanship is oddly hypnotizing, and thus he is able to make money by peddling the bogus trinkets and baubles in his store,

His work ethic is mainly driven by his desire to make money, so when he's not generating an income, he's usually at home watching television. Stan is also a lot more intelligent than he appears, as he's shown on multiple occasions, such as constantly outwitting Little Gideon. Even though he sends the twins on unpredictable and outrageous errands, he always has their best interests at heart and loves them unconditionally. He prefers to say ' How is it hangin' ' than the usual 'Sup'.

Meanwhile, when he isn't busy trying to make a quick buck from his unsuspecting customers, Grunkle Stan is guarding his own secret that might hold the key to unlocking the mystery of Gravity Falls.

Stan sees the tourists as a way to make a quick buck and nothing more. His business tends to draw in a more oblivious crowd, whom he easily fools with his entirely fake exhibits. He is a popular con artist, yet the tourists don't see it. . Apparently, his car Stanley writes, El Diablo, which means The Devil.

Appearance
Grunkle Stan has brown eyes with cataracts, gray eyebrows, and gray hair (Both of which were brown in his youth), that is almost always covered by Stan's trademark maroon fez, which bore a yellow crescent shape (through episodes 1 to 13) and later a similar figure, albeit with straight edges, with a dot next to it. He bears a somewhat large, droopy, pear-shaped, reddish-pinkish nose, large ears, and fair skin. Stan has wrinkly skin and dentures as a result of his age, a slouched posture, and a dull indigo tattoo of a mirrored compass on his back. He usually wears a pair of rectangular glasses with a black rim. Stan also has a perpetual five o'clock shadow covering his lower face.

Stan's typical outfit is a black suit, with the jacket buttoned closed, a bow tie similar in color to his fez, and a white dress shirt. He also wears big, light brown shoes and the aforementioned fez and glasses. He frequently carries an eight ball cane with him and often wears an unnecessary eye-patch over one of his eyes while working.

Around the house, he tends to wear a white tank top, a gold necklace, striped blue underwear, slippers, and his glasses and fez. This particular outfit shows Stan's body hair, of which he has an excessive amount, burly arms, skinny legs, and his very large gut.

Mabel Pines
Stan's and Mabel's conflicting personalities sometimes clash, often resulting in arguments and disapproval between them. Nevertheless, they care about each other and enjoy spending quality time with one another. Mabel often gets involved in whatever problem Stan is dealing with on a given day and tries to help him solve it, usually when Stan does not ask for her help. Stan can be protective of his niece and will get jealous when she spends time with others instead of him, and he has a tendency to find Mabel more likable than Dipper.

Dipper Pines
Stan does not often supervise Dipper as he is supposed to as the boy's summer caretaker, and is known to take advantage of him, which annoys and angers Dipper. Stan also teases his nephew frequently, and Dipper can get annoyed with Stan. However, they still love each other and like to bond, and Stan seems to have a soft spot for both of the twins, and is well-meaning. Stan seems to forget his name frequently, and he also likes to do the trick of taking a quarter out of Dipper's ears to freak him out, as mentioned in the interview. In Dreamscaperers, It's revealed that the reason Stan is hard on Dipper is so that when the world fights, Dipper fights back.

Soos
Stan views Soos as a loyal employee, he still takes advantage of the old man-child, using his cluelessness to his advantage. Soos, on the other hand, admires Stan and attends to his boss' every whim, spending a great portion of his time at work. The two men have developed a friendship over the years.

Wendy Corduroy
Wendy is disrespectful toward Stan and is notorious for slacking off and breaking rules when he is not looking. Stan is harsh on her, contributing to her view of him as the "worst boss ever," and she is not above playing pranks on him. But she overlooks all this, Wendy is still willing to help Stan from time to time, even with his personal life.

Gideon Gleeful
Stan and Gideon have been rivals for years, both in business and life. Stan sees Gideon as a moronic, hindering, and irritating nuisance. As Stan mocks and is angered by his young foe, not taking him to be a threat in any way, Gideon plots his revenge on Stan and his family, with pranks on the side. Gideon also seeks a mysterious secret hidden within Stan's Mystery Shack.

Quotes
"I've never had fishing buddies before; the guys at the lodge won't go with me! They don't 'like' or 'trust' me."

- Stan Pines

"Sounds like something a responsible parent wouldn't want you doing... Good thing I'm an uncle! Avenge me, kids! AVENGE ME!!!"

- Stan Pines

"No buts except yours out the door! Now shut your yap and get to work!"

- Stan to Mabel

"Remember folks, we put the FUN in 'No Refunds!'"

- Stan Pines

"You know, studies show that keeping a ladder inside the house is more dangerous than a loaded gun. That's why I own ten guns. In case some maniac tries to sneak in a ladder!"

- Stan explaining why he doesn't have a ladder

Trivia

 * Grunkle Stan has a tattoo on his back. A bit of it has been seen, as a large part of it is covered by the armscye of his tank top.
 * In "Dreamscaperers," Bill Cipher momentarily flashes Stan's full tattoo.
 * In Stan's underground lair in "Gideon Rises," the symbol that Bill flashes is seen illuminating from the side of his desk/control board.
 * His car has a vanity license plate that reads "STNLYMBL." This is most likely short for Stanley Mobile, even thought his name is Stanford.
 * In "Bottomless Pit," Stan's fez design and every instance of it is replaced, most likely due to copyright reasons.
 * He has been sent to jail in Colombia.
 * Grunkle Stan is continuously seen running away with stuff.
 * He claims to own ten loaded guns.
 * Grunkle Stan, Mabel, and Dipper have been to the county jail due to them making counterfeit money during one of Stan's "family fun days."
 * The fez that Stan is wearing is actually a Shriners hat.
 * The symbol on Stan's fez may be the Luwian hieroglyph for "Luna" or moon.
 * In some countries, the first symbol on Stan's fez is removed.
 * Even though it has not been stated outright, since Stan and the twins share the same last name, one can infer that he has a brother, who would be Dipper and Mabel's paternal grandfather.
 * Toffee peanuts are Stan's favorite treat.
 * Stan wears a hearing aid.
 * Lil' Gideon is one of the only characters in Gravity Falls to call Stan by his full name, Stanford.
 * Bob Odenkirk of "Breaking Bad" fame was originally going to be cast as Stan, but he turned the offer down.
 * Stan is called "Grunkle Stan" by Dipper and Mabel because he believes "Great Uncle" takes too much time to say, and, according to him, time is money.
 * Stan wears the same necklace as Sheriff Blubs, but they are under their shirts.
 * He had girlfriend named Carla McCorkle.

Stanford Pines