Das Bus

"Das Bus" 250px

Episode Information Showrunner: [[{{{showrunner}}}]]

Plot

While Springfield Elementary School goes on a field trip, the kids on the bus have a fruit race. Milhouse's grapefruit wins, but it gets caught under the brake. Otto presses it and gets blinded by the juice from it and the bus drives off the road and into the ocean. The kids all end up on an island with no sign of getting home. Otto gets captured by Vietnamese fisherman in search of slave laborers. While on the island, the kids have nothing to eat. Bart remembers the cooler full of food in the bus and swims to the ocean bottom to get it. They all eat some of it and save the rest for the next day. When they wake up, they find out all the food has been eaten, and evidence has been left near Milhouse. Everyone turns against him. They then find out it was a warthog who ate their food. Lisa tells them that they should eat what the warthog has been eating, slime on the rocks. The kids then kill the warthog and cook and eat him while Lisa eats the slime. The narrator tells us that the kids were saved by Moe.

Meanwhile, Homer starts his own Internet company, but he doesn't have a clue of what he's doing. He is soon shut down by Bill Gates' thugs.

Production

A deleted scene had Homer buying anti-stress instruments. He uses them all and gets stressed. According to Mike Scully, this scene was regrettably deleted due to the episode being too long.

Reception

In a 2006 article in USA Today, "Das Bus" was highlighted among the six best episodes of The Simpsons season 9, along with others including "Trash of the Titans," "The Last Temptation of Krust," "The Cartridge Family," "Dumbbell Indemnity," and "The Joy of Sect".

Cultural references

• Most of the episode about being on the island is a spoof of the classic novel Lord of the Flies, although in the end of the story the boys are rescued by naval officers, who themselves are in the middle of a war. This ending is however true to the 1990 film version of Lord of the Flies, which made numerous changes to the original story.
• When the kids are squabbling in the classroom, Principal Skinner restores orders by banging his shoe on the desk. Skinner's actions are similar to Soviet dictator Nikita Khrushchev at the UN allegedly banging his shoe on a table.
• When the rest of the children (led by Nelson) are chasing Bart, Lisa, and Milhouse, Ralph Wiggum has painted his face to resemble Peter Criss of KISS.
• The title is a play on the film Das Boot. Since Bus is of male grammatical gender, "Der Bus" would be correct German.

Quotes

• Bart: Food patrol, how'd you do ?
• Lisa: (Holds up three berries.)

Bart: What? But where are all the lobsters, mangoes, and chewy, chewy cocoa beans. Lisa: All we found were these berries, and they look pretty poisonous. (Sqishes a purple berry)

• Ralph: I ated the purple berries... oh (clutches stomach), oh (bends down), oh (falls over).
• Bart: How are they Ralph?... Good?
• Ralph: They taste like (pause) burning.

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The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson • The Principal and the Pauper • Lisa's Sax • Treehouse of Horror VIII • The Cartridge Family • Bart Star • The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons • Lisa the Skeptic • Realty Bites • Miracle on Evergreen Terrace • All Singing, All Dancing • Bart Carny • The Joy of Sect • Das Bus • The Last Temptation of Krust • Dumbbell Indemnity • Lisa the Simpson • This Little Wiggy • Simpson Tide • The Trouble with Trillions • Girly Edition • Trash of the Titans • King of the Hill • Lost Our Lisa • Natural Born Kissers