Otto Mann is a fictional character on The Simpsons, voiced by Harry Shearer. He is the school bus driver for Springfield Elementary School and is addressed by Bart as Otto-Man. He is notable for his occasional maniacal driving style, his love of heavy metal music, and his propensity for sounding and acting like a perpetual 1970s teenager.

He has been seen at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings: "My name is Otto, and I love to get blotto!", and in recent seasons we learn that he is a stoner as well. He is often homeless, having been evicted from his apartment and forced to live with the Simpsons in the episode The Otto Show, and found squatting in the Simpsons' recently-vacated home in You Only Move Twice.

Driving the schoolbus

---

Otto's ability and competence to drive any kind of vehicle, let alone a school bus, is highly questionable. He was dismissed from his job when the authorities discovered that he did not hold any kind of licence, or any kind of identification at all. He only attained his driving licence 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 to annoy Homer). In Das Bus, Otto crashes the bus full of children into the ocean (though it isn't his fault, but a melon's), 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 were actually planning to enslave him below decks.

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 blow your heads off!". He then apologizes and explains that he has a "Shining thing" going on with this bus, a reference to the Stanley Kubrick film where the lead 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. However, Otto also bears a striking resemblance to Slash and also a young Ronnie James Dio.

Trivia

---

According to Otto's driver's license, he was born on January 18, 1963, he is 5 ft 10 in, and weighs 150 lb.

• Once, Otto claims to have been trained as a "certified blood-letting-tech-dude".

• Otto is also the only adult working at Springfield Elementary who gets along well with the students. Bart, in particular, thinks Otto is "the coolest adult ^* ever met". Otto responds, "Wow! I've never been called an adult before! I've been tried as one, though..."

• Otto is seemingly a habitual and heavy drug user. When Springfield builds a new prison, Otto applies for a position as a warder. Realising that his urine sample contains a cocktail of illegal narcotics, he surreptitiously swaps his sample with Homer's, ensuring that Homer would be labelled as a degenerate drug addict and disbarred from the job.

• In Weekend at Burnsie's, Otto smokes Homer's medicinal marijuana. Under the influence, Otto states that "Shemp" was "hemp" spelled backwards. Then Homer points out that "Otto" was "Otto" spelled backwards, which scared him.

• In Lisa Gets an "A", during one of Lisa's dream sequences, Otto claims to have almost become a tenured professor at Brown University.

• In 2010 (according to a fortune-telling in Lisa's Wedding), Otto would be the boss of Springfield's cab company (established 2003), with former Mayor Quimby employed under him.

• Otto's look was apparently based on that of former Simpsons writer Wallace Wolodarsky.

Name

• In at least one episode, Otto's last name is 'Mechanic'.

• Otto's name could be a play on the German highway, the autobahn, because of his reckless and fast driving.

• It is likely just to be coincidence, but Otto's name may be a reference to Stephen King's novel The Running Man. Its protagonist, Ben Richards, asks the pilot "Who's driving the plane?" The pilot responds, "Otto the Automatic Pilot". In the Simpsons Halloween episode Terror at 5½ Feet, when Bart claims a gremlin is sabotaging the bus, everyone (including Otto) runs to the window to see. Milhouse then asks "Hey, who's driving the bus?", and Otto hastily returns to his seat, muttering in Spanish.

Love of music

In It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marge, Otto is engaged to be married, but when forced to choose between his fiancée and his music; he prefers the latter, 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, and "Purple Haze" by The Jimi Hendrix Experience.

• 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 very much in the style of Hendrix's guitar solos. He puts the lute behind his head to play it, smashes it, then sets it on fire on the floor (like in the video to All along the Watchtower).

• 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 ... It's all a rip-off of Judas Priest".

Simpsons characters | Fictional American television characters | Fictional bus drivers | Fictional drug addicts

Otto (The Simpsons) | Die_Simpsons_%28Figuren%29#Otto_Mann | Otto Bus