The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man is a fictional character from the Ghostbusters franchise, which sometimes appears as a giant, lumbering paranormal monster. As the chosen form of Gozer, it is the main antagonist in the film Ghostbusters (1984) and first appears as a picture logo on a prop package of marshmallows in Dana Barrett's apartment, on a graffiti advertisement on the building next to the Ghostbusters' HQ, and then in the climax of the film as the physical manifestation of the Sumerian deity Gozer. Subsequently, it has been incorporated into many other Ghostbusters media, including the animated series The Real Ghostbusters, comic books, a stage show, and video games. In the Ghostbusters universe, it is the mascot of the fictional Stay Puft Marshmallow Corporation, much like Michelin's Bibendum (also known as the "Michelin Man") and the Pillsbury Doughboy (both of which it resembles). Within that universe, it is also the subject of a Marshmallow Man cartoon series.[1] Along with the Ghostbusters logo, the image of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man has become one of the most recognizable emblems of the franchise.
Stay Puft is a large white humanoid figure made of conjoined marshmallows. He wears a white sailor cap with a red ribbon attached on top, and a blue hatband. Around his neck is a blue traditional sailor's collar and a red neckerchief. After images of him are seen on a billboard and a bag of the marshmallows earlier in the film, he is then seen in the climax of Ghostbusters as one of two physical bodies of Gozer, a god who is defeated when Stay Puft is destroyed. Stay Puft's exact to-scale height in the movie is 112.5 feet (34.3 m) tall,[2] while his height in the novelization of the movie is given at 100 feet (30.5 m). He is then recreated and subsequently captured a number of different times by the Ghostbusters. Although mean and destructive at first, he later befriends Slimer and the Ghostbusters in the animated series The Real Ghostbusters, and helps them out with various problems. Dan Aykroyd conceived of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man for his initial script for Ghostbusters the movie.
He created the character to show that "it seems harmless and puffy and cute—but given the right circumstances, everything can be turned black and become evil".[4] Stay Puft was only one of many large-scale monsters in this early draft of the script, but after Aykroyd worked with co-writer Harold Ramis and director Ivan Reitman, the team scaled back the intended sequence until only Stay Puft remained out of the original large-scale monsters. The likeness of Stay Puft was inspired by Peter O'Boyle, a security guard at Columbia Pictures whom Reitman met while filming his previous movie, Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (1983). According to Sam Delaney of The Guardian, "Stay Puft's familiar mascot combined elements of real-life brand ambassadors the Pillsbury Doughboy and Bibendum (a.k.a. the Michelin Tire Man)." Stay Puft is seen only briefly in the movie. He is "conjured up"[6] as a new form for the Sumerian god Gozer, who previously arrives atop an apartment building at 55 Central Park West in New York City in the form of an androgynous woman with metallic skin and eyes.
After a quick battle with the Ghostbusters she vanishes, and then as a disembodied voice Gozer tells the Ghostbusters that the next thing they think of will be the form it will assume to destroy their world. Ray Stantz (Aykroyd) instead makes the decision to think of this marshmallow mascot when the Ghostbusters are given a choice as to which physical form Gozer will conquer the world in. As he explains, "It just popped in there", and that he "tried to think of the most harmless thing", describing Mr. Stay Puft as "something that could never possibly destroy us". Moments later, a giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man is seen walking towards the apartment building. The Ghostbusters shoot at Stay Puft with their proton packs, setting him on fire, but do not succeed in stopping his advance. They then get the idea of shooting at the portal through which the god emerged, by crossing the streams of all four of their packs. The plan triggers an explosion that destroys the gate and Stay Puft, reducing the latter into molten marshmallow cream that rains down onto the roof of the skyscraper and bystanders on the street below.
The character as seen in the movie was created by Bill Bryan using miniatures, optical compositing, and Bryan himself in a latex suit.[7] The suit was made of two layers, an outer flammable layer and inner fire-proof layer.[8] Some of the finished movie's most noticeable errors appear in the Stay Puft scenes: he is seen with and without his bow tie, while in other scenes the optical rendering was so poor that he passes through a church rather than crushing it. Outside of appearances in the television series, Stay Puft (seen here menacing the Ghostbusters and Slimer) appeared in numerous issues of the various Ghostbusters comicbook series as well. From The Real Ghostbusters #138. Published by Marvel UK. Following the original film, the television series The Real Ghostbusters brought Stay Puft back; in fact Joe Medjuck, the executive producer of the show, states that Stay Puft was in the first script they received from Dan Aykroyd on the series.[14] In the episode titled, "Mr. Sandman, Dream Me a Dream", a spectral Sandman creates versions of anything which a person is dreaming of – in this way a new version of Stay Puft is created – however, whatever is created disappears when the person awakens.
In the episode "Dedcon 1", Stay Puft appears as a guest of honor at a ghost convention. After another episode, "Cry Uncle", he is accidentally freed from the Ghostbusters' containment system and later recaptured. He reappears in episode 65, "The Revenge of Murray the Mantis", where he is "released" from the Ghostbusters' containment unit to help defeat a giant mantis too powerful for the Ghostbusters to fight on their own. Stay Puft is controlled with the help of Slimer (a green blob-like creature). After defeating the Mantis, Stay Puft floats behind the Ghostbusters in a parade. He later helps them again in the episode "Sticky Business" number 85, when the president of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Company asks the Ghostbusters if he can use their large Stay Puft in a television commercial. Once again Slimer goes into the containment unit to bring Stay Puft out. An episode[] explains that Egon took a sample of the marshmallow ectoplasm and positively charged it, thus creating a friendly version of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man that would assist the Ghostbusters when needed.