Otto Mann

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Otto Mann is a fictional character on the animated TV series The Simpsons, voiced by Harry Shearer. He is the school bus driver for Springfield Elementary School.

Character description

Otto, who is of German descent, is notable for his maniacal driving style (which, along with never getting a driver's license, cost him his job on the season three episode "The Otto Show"), his love of heavy metal music, and his propensity for sounding and acting like a perpetual 1980s teenager. In season eleven's It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marge, he is shown to be a big fan of glam metal group Poison. According to A Complete Guide To Our Favorite Family, his favorite songs are "Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd, "Purple Haze" by The Jimi Hendrix Experience, "Frankenstein" by the Edgar Winter Group, and "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath.

In the episode "Bart's Inner Child", Otto jumps on a trampoline designed for kids, demonstrating his immaturity. He also has a habit of describing things as "gnarly". In early seasons he is often used as a friend and confidant to Bart, despite their age difference. Later seasons however usually only depict him as a passerby citizen of Springfield.

He has been seen at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings: "My name is Otto, and I love to get blotto!" He is a stoner as well (he smokes with Homer in "Weekend at Burnsie's", had a joint with him on "Strong Arms of the Ma", and smoked a bong in The Simpsons Movie). It has also been implied that Otto used other drugs like heroin and LSD (in "Homerpalooza", during Peter Frampton's show, he sees his shoes talking to him; in "The Seven-Beer Snitch", Otto's urine sample was so loaded with illegal substances that the inside of it looked like a scene from the cartoon Yellow Submarine).

His openness towards substances is also demonstrated in the new HD intro, in which Otto ingests the presumably radioactive coil that Homer tosses out from work.

Notable history

In the episode "Homer Defined", Otto states that he has a brother, who married his "old lady." In the episode "Bart Gets an F", it is revealed that he repeated the 4th grade twice. In the episode "The Otto Show" it is revealed that he can play the guitar very skilfully and he says that is all he did in high school. He is often homeless, having been evicted from his apartment and forced to live with the Simpsons in "The Otto Show", and found squatting in the Simpsons' recently vacated home in "You Only Move Twice".

It is also implied that he sleeps in the school bus on several occasions. His worldly possessions are (or were) nothing more than the clothes on his back, a couple of old 'cycle magazines and a jar of mustard. In the commentary for "Bart the Daredevil", it is revealed that the writers planned to name him "Otto Mechanic", but the joke never appeared in an episode. To add to his typical teenager-like attitude, Otto never gives any rules, such as saying as children were boarding the bus, "Hey, quit shoving! Nah, I'm just kidding, you can shove all you want!"

According to the episode "The Mook, the Chef, the Wife and Her Homer", Otto was in the same third grade class as Kearney. This is further explored (and exaggerated) in The President Wore Pearls, where it is suggested that he is even older than Krusty the Clown. His look is based on former Simpsons writer Wallace Wolodarsky.

In the episode "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marge", when Otto puts on a top hat to propose to his girlfriend, Becky, he looks similar to former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash; this could well be intentional, due to Otto's love for rock music. There may also be some reference to Jim Morrison of The Doors as well, given that both have/had a father who is a high-ranking officer in the United States Navy.

In the episode "The Otto Show", Otto's driver's license is shown onscreen, revealing him to be 5 ft 10 in, 150 lb, his hair and eyes are noted as black, and was born on January 18, 1963. His driver's license ID number is VOUS98213.

See also

• The Pin Pals
• The Simpsons

External links

• Otto Mann at the Internet Movie Database