Otto Mann
Otto Mann
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Character Information
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Otto Mann the Springfield Elementary bus driver. He enjoys playing guitar and calls almost everyone, "Dude." Otto's recurring passenger is Bart, who he often calls "Lil' Bart Dude." Otto has a father (who is of high ranking in the US Military) and a mother, and has had numerous ex-girlfriends, including Becky. He has long black hair, and wears a light purple short-sleeved shirt and blue shorts. He also wears a hat with headphones on. He is 29 years old. Otto enjoys heavy metal music, and is a well gifted guitar player. He appears to be a charactature of an early 1990's teenager, often speaking openly about his drug and alcohol use, his love of current-music (once mentioning going to a Soundgarden concert, and another time appearing at Lollapalooza), and his apathetic view towards things. Sometimes Otto will have acid trips while driving, or while out in public (his shoes spoke to him at Lollapalooza, stating they meant no harm and only wanted to listen to the music). He is voiced by Harry Shearer.
Profile
Otto is notable for his maniacal driving style, his love of heavy metal music, and his propensity for sounding and acting like a perpetual 1970s teenager. According to his drivers license in Otto Mann, he was born on January 18 1963. Otto also attended Brown University, where he graduated Sigma, taught briefly and almost received tenure.
He has been seen at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings: "My name is Otto, and I love to get blotto!", and in recent seasons it is revealed that he is a stoner as well (he was hanging out with Homer while high in "Weekend at Burnsie's", and was seen smoking a joint in "Strong Arms of The Ma" and a bong in The Simpsons Movie), although in previous seasons, it has been implied that Otto used other drugs like heroin and LSD (in Homerpalooza, during Peter Frampton's show, he has a hallucination in which his shoes talk to him). In the episode "The Otto Show" it is revealed that he can play the guitar very skillfully and he says that is what 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". 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. His name is a joke on the ottoman's name, as well as Bart's tendency to greet him with "Otto, man!" 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 Velvet Revolver and former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash. He lost his position as a Bus Driver twice. One was during the events of the Otto Show, where he was revealed to not own a license as well as his record of 15 car crashes, and the second time due to spanking Bart after the latter hijacked the bus to get the kids to school, which cost Otto his only chance at giving Metallica a ride. In the episode No Loan Again, Naturally, It's implied that Otto had sex with Agnes Skinner, due to the both of them leaving an overturned jester head from the aftermath of the Marti Gras party and raising one of the straps to her dress up.
Driving the School Bus
Otto's ability and competence to drive any kind of vehicle, let alone a school bus, is highly questionable. On "The Otto Show", he tells Principal Skinner that he has a record of crashing his school bus 15 times without a single fatality. On the same episode, he was dismissed from his job when the authorities discovered that he did not hold any kind of license, or any kind of identification at all. (He stated that his identification was the fact that he wrote his name on his underwear; only to discover that he was wearing someone else's). He only attained his driving license thereafter because Patty passed him, and this was despite him completely failing to drive the bus in a restrained and secure manner (she passed him because they shared a mutual hatred of Homer). Otto has also been shown smoking or being under the influence of marijuana while driving the bus, and in "The Seven-Beer Snitch" his urine test contained "crack, smack, uppers, downers, outers, inners, horse tranquilizers, cow paralyzers, blue bombers, green goofers, yellow submarines, LSD Mach 3" and trace amounts of human urine. In "Das Bus", Otto crashes the bus full of children into the ocean (in this particular instance, it isn't his fault; he has grapefruit citric acid in his eyes), leaving his passengers to be washed up on an exotic island. Otto himself was seemingly rescued by a Chinese fishing trawler, unaware that its crew was actually planning to enslave him below decks. In "Homerpalooza" he accidentally drives into the auto wrecking yard crushing it into a scale model of the bus. It is in the bus that Otto meets his end; in the episode '24 Minutes' Otto drives the bus onto rail road tracks and whilst jamming to rock music the bus is struck by an oncoming train.
In "The Boy Who Knew Too Much", the familiar yellow school bus is replaced by an old prison transport bus with barred windows. Otto uncharacteristically tells the children to "take a seat, before I blow your heads off!". He then apologizes and explains that he has a "Shining thing" going on with this bus, a reference to the Stephen King novel where the main character's surroundings directly affect his personality, causing murderous traits.
Family
His father is a navy admiral, and the two do not get along. His father warned Otto that if he spent all day playing his guitar, his life would amount to nothing. There have been suggestions that this is a reference to Jim Morrison of The Doors, whose father was also an admiral. Otto's look is based on Former Simpsons writer Wallace Wolodarsky. He was once engaged to a girl named Becky, but at the wedding she revealed she couldn't stand heavy metal after he hired a Poison cover band to play at the ceremony. Marge then told him he had to choose between Becky and his music - he chose the latter, leaving Becky at the altar. In other episodes Otto has made reference to a girlfriend named Crystal, though this could be a joke about crystal meth.
Love of music
- In "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marge", Otto is engaged to be married and plays Every Rose Has Its Thorn by Poison while proposing to Becky, but when forced to choose between his fiancée and his music; he prefers his music, dumping her.
- Otto's favorite songs include "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath, "Dazed and Confused" by Led Zeppelin, "Frankenstein" by The Edgar Winter Group, "Freebird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd, "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" by Poison, "Purple Haze" by The Jimi Hendrix Experience and "We're an American Band" by Grand Funk Railroad. He also likes Metallica, which is referenced several times, but he doesn't state particular songs.
- In the episode "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Guest Star", at a mock-medieval fair at the school, Otto plays a lute solo in the style of Jimi Hendrix's guitar solos. He puts the lute behind his head to play it, smashes it, and then sets it on fire on the floor, just as Hendrix did on June 18, 1967 at the Monterey Pop Festival.
- When Otto is swept out to sea, his last words as he disappears over the horizon are "Zeppelin Rules!".
- Otto loves classic metal, and says "New music?! All these bands are just ripping-off Judas Priest" at a Tower records style listening station where he forgets to take his headphones (which are playing Judas Priest) off before placing the ones playing the "new music" on.
- When interviewed by Kent Brockman while standing in line at the post office during the April 15 tax rush, Otto thought he was in line for Metallica tickets.
- During a U2 PopMart Tour concert at Springfield Stadium in the episode "Trash of the Titans", Otto is the only one who is seated, and is seen briefly and pitifully shouting, "Sit down! SIT DOWN! You're ruining it for everybody!"
- He once met Metallica in the episode The Mook, the Chef, the Wife and Her Homer and exclaims, "It's Metallica! Am I on drugs?" A lizard in a hallucination replies, "Yes you are, but that really is Metallica." Otto apparently saved Kirk Hammett from quitting the band after seeing his lighter in a concert at Springfield Arena in 1997. When he tried to offer Metallica a ride, Bart drove off with the school bus.
- He claims that music is about far off lands (Immigrant Song), deals with the devil (The Devil Went Down to Georgia) and smoke in relation to water (Smoke on the Water).
- In Girls Just Want to Have Sums he turns on the song "Breaking the Law" by Judas Priest as the girls left the bus.
- In the episode "The Otto Show", it is revealed that he could play the guitar very skillfully. He said that the guitar is what all he did in high school.
- In the episode I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can Lisa is seen running all through Springfield with people asking her to spell different words. Otto tells her to spell AC/DC. She responds by saying A-C-D-C. He then adds that she forgot the lightning bolt referring to the lightning bolt representing the slash between AC and DC
Overview
He is notable for his occasionally manic driving style and his propensity for sounding and acting like a perpetual '70s teenager. He has also had his license revoked, and driven a mobile pool during summer, as well as nearly getting married. He has been seen at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings: "My name is Otto, and I love to get blotto!" He is often homeless, having been evicted from his apartment and forced to live with the Simpsons in one episode, and found squatting in the Simpsons' recently-vacated home in another. In a Simpsons comic book, he reveals that he wears headphones with his Walk Man because he doesn't want to let other people know he's listening to classical music.
Appearances
