The Otto Show

"The Otto Show" is the twenty-second episode of Season 3. Spinal Tap guest star as themselves, reuniting Simpsons regular Harry Shearer with Christopher Guest and Michael McKean.
==Synopsis==
After going to a Spinal Tap concert, Bart is fired up to be a rock star, but can't seem to master the electric guitar. Meanwhile, Otto ends up living with The Simpsons after losing his job (following a school bus crash and admitting to Principal Skinner and the local police that he somehow got a school bus driving job despite never getting a driver's license), failing his driver's test, and getting evicted from his apartment.
== Full Story ==
Bart and Milhouse attend a Spinal Tap concert, but it turns into a major flop and degenerates into a riot that was serious enough to get the Springfield SWAT division involved. Nonetheless, Bart is impressed by the aging heavy metal band and wants to become a rock guitarist. Homer also unintentionally left Milhouse behind in the ruins of the concert and had to double back to pick him up.
Homer and Marge purchase an electric guitar for Bart, but he struggles to learn how to play it. The next morning on the school bus, Bart brings his guitar onto the bus and Otto compliments him on his "cherry ax" to which Bart replies that he thinks the guitar is broken. Bart hands it to Otto, who – with the bus still blocking traffic – wows his passengers with an impromptu concert, as well as severely irritating the people behind him. However, Otto loses track of time and is forced to drive recklessly to school. In the ensuing chaos, the bus runs Spinal Tap's bus off the road, plows through a police officers' picnic (with no one on the force able to identify the license plate number), and turns over onto its side in the town square (with several witnesses flocking to pay phones to call the "How's My Driving?" hotline number). Principal Skinner is glad that no one was hurt, but has to suspend Otto without pay after Otto admits that he never got a driver's license nor does he wear underwear with his name on it. While Otto is out, Principal Skinner (who once drove an all-terrain vehicle while stationed in Da Nang during the Vietnam War) takes over as the school's bus driver. Initially, he loves the drive and the kids' singing "Hail to the Bus Driver", but soon finds it difficult when he refuses to merge into traffic and has a meltdown over Ralph singing a verse in "Hail to the Bus Driver".
Meanwhile, Otto's driving test does not go over well. Not only does he offend Patty by asking if she's a male-to-female transsexual, but he also fails every segment of the road test and misspells "bus" on his application. When he comes home, Otto is locked out of his apartment, which his landlord did because he hasn't paid his rent in months (and won't let him go inside to get his belongings, because all Otto has is a jar of mustard and a couple of old cycle magazines -- with Otto being surprised that he had mustard) and is reduced to living in a Trashco Waste Disposal Unit (as Dumpsters are too fancy for him). Bart (who inexplicably found his way off the bus after viewers last saw it stuck in traffic) finds Otto in the garbage and offers to let him stay in the Simpson family garage.
Otto soon makes a nuisance of himself as he becomes comfortable laying around the house and playing his - formerly Bart's - guitar at full volume. Homer soon loses his patience with Otto after finding a clump of his hair in their bathroom sink. The last straw is when Otto tells Lisa a ghost story where a female driver thinks another driver is stalking her, but is actually warning her about an axe-wielding maniac hiding in her backseat, which freaks out Lisa when Otto says he was the maniac who killed the female driver. Homer demands that Otto be kicked out because, "...this is not Happy Days, and he is not The Fonz". Marge agrees that he has to leave, but between her and Bart, encourage Otto to give the driving test one last try.
Otto and Bart go to the Springfield DMV. Outside, an unconfident Otto frets that Homer was right about him being a bum. Bart corrects Otto, revealing that Homer called him a sponge. Otto is enraged, and determined to pass, bursts into the DMV and demands another chance. Patty is ready to turn him down when Otto tells her that he also hates Homer, and he wants to pass to prove him wrong and "staple his license to Homer Simpson's big bald head". Patty quickly changes her tune, and not only gives him another chance, but helps him cheat on his written test and overlooks many of his practical fails as they both make fun of Homer's crude behavior, even offering to take him out to a bar for a drink.
The next day, Otto is back to work with a "PROBATIONARY" stamp on his license when he shows it off to Bart. Otto drives off into the sunset, with Skinner remarking, "Hail to the bus driver, bus driver man" and is grateful to be back as principal.
== Citations ==
fr:Le Permis d'Otto Bus
pl:The Otto Show
pt:Show de Otto
Category:Bart episodes
Category:Otto episodes
Category:Episodes named after a character
Category:Episodes featuring guest stars
Category:Homer episodes
Category:Principal Skinner episodes
Category:Marge episodes
Category:Rock 'n roll episodes
Category:Episodes featuring musical guest stars
Category:Episodes on DVD
Category:Episodes with a alternative Gracie Films logo
Category:Klasky-Csupo, Inc.
Category:Musical-themed Episodes
Category:Highly Rated Episodes