Das Bus
Encyclopedia
"Das Bus" is the fourteenth episode of The Simpsons
' ninth season
and originally aired on the Fox
network on February 15, 1998. Bart, Lisa and other children from Springfield Elementary School are stranded on an island and are forced to work together. Meanwhile, Homer founds his own Internet company. It was written by David S. Cohen
and directed by Pete Michels
. Guest star James Earl Jones
narrates the final scene of the episode.
club is going on a field trip. On the bus, Bart
, Nelson
, Ralph
and Milhouse
are playing a game by rolling fruit to the front. Milhouse rolls a grapefruit
that gets stuck under the brakes. When bus driver Otto
attempts to press down on the pedal, it squishes the fruit, and juice squirts into his eyes, causing him to lose control and crash the bus off a bridge into the water.
Otto leaves the children behind in an attempt to swim for help but ends up being washed away by the current. It is later revealed Otto is picked up by Chinese
fishermen, who plan to use him for slave labor. The students, Bart, Lisa, Milhouse, Nelson, Lewis, Ralph, Martin, Wendell, Sherri and Terri, however, swim to a nearby tropical island. Bart tries to tell the children that being stranded on an island is just like TV where life is easy and cocktail
s are plentiful, comparing it to The Swiss Family Robinson
, only with more cursing. Reality soon sets in when the island is found to be largely barren and the children lack survival skills. With no food found on the island and no adult supervision, the children rely on snack food retrieved from the sunken bus by Bart. They awaken the next morning to find the snacks all gone. Suspecting Milhouse because of his pot-belly and nacho cheese breath, the students put him on trial and he blames the loss on a mysterious island "monster".
Back at home, Homer
discovers that Ned Flanders
has his own home-based Internet business
, Flancrest Enterprises. Homer complains to Marge that everyone except the Simpson family are getting rich off the Internet, and he wants a piece of the action, despite knowing nothing about it. He launches his own dot-com company, Compu-Global-Hyper-Mega-Net, which is later bought out
by Bill Gates
and his goons. Unfortunately, Bill Gates' "buying out" procedure is having his goons destroy Homer's office and break all of his possessions, stating he didn't get rich by writing a lot of checks.
During the trial held by the students, there is insufficient evidence to prove Milhouse ate all the food. Because of this, Bart, acting as judge, acquits Milhouse. The other students are not happy with this verdict and attempt to kill Milhouse. Lisa
tries to stop the violence, but gets pushed by Nelson. Bart, angered by this, tells everyone to leave Lisa alone. The other students end up chasing Bart, Lisa, and Milhouse into a cave, where it is revealed that Milhouse's "monster" is actually a wild boar. On one of the boar's tusks is an empty bag of chips, revealing that it was the actual culprit in eating the snacks. The students apologize to Milhouse, who reveals that he only took "two sandwiches and a bag of Doritos
". They then kill the boar and eat it (with the exception of Lisa, who adheres to her vegetarianism
and licks slime from a rock instead). The episode concludes with a comically obvious deus ex machina
ending, narrated by James Earl Jones
:
's niece. The movie True Lies
was the inspiration for the bus crashing against the bridge. To get the fisherman's Chinese correct, Cohen called his friend. When the Chinese
actors came, the actors felt Cantonese
would be more appropriate for the fisherman than Mandarin
, so it was changed. Moe was picked to rescue the children, because the writers thought it was funny. A deleted scene had Homer buying anti-stress instruments. He uses them all and gets stressed. According to Mike Scully, this scene was deleted due to the episode being too long.
's 1954 novel Lord of the Flies
. The title comes from the 1981 film Das Boot
, although it would be "Der Bus" in German. When the children are squabbling in the classroom, Principal Skinner
restores orders by banging his shoe on the desk. Skinner's actions are a reference to the shoe-banging incident
by Soviet
leader Nikita Khrushchev
at the UN
in 1960. When escaping from the other children, Bart, Lisa and Milhouse have to swing across a gap on a vine; Milhouse goes across first, but refuses to throw the vine back in a reference to the opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark
(1981), where the same thing happens to Indiana Jones
. Ralph's painted face is similar to that of Kiss
member Peter Criss
.
of 9.9, equivalent to approximately 9.6 million viewing households. It was the third highest-rated show on the Fox network that week, following The X-Files
and King of the Hill
.
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
". The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, called it "A fantastic episode. Ignore the Internet business side, and wallow in the cleverness of the children trapped on the island. Bart has never been cleverer, Nelson more menacing, and Milhouse more geekish. Great stuff with a delightful ending that is so witty and obvious, that it's annoying you never imagined they'd get away with it."
The episode has become study material for sociology courses at University of California, Berkeley
, where it is used to "examine issues of the production and reception of cultural objects, in this case, a satirical cartoon show", and to figure out what it is "trying to tell audiences about aspects primarily of American society, and, to a lesser extent, about other societies." Some questions asked in the courses include: "What aspects of American society are being addressed in the episode? What aspects of them are used to make the points? How is the satire conveyed: through language? Drawing? Music? Is the behavior of each character consistent with his/her character as developed over the years? Can we identify elements of the historical/political context that the writers are satirizing? What is the difference between satire and parody?"
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
The Simpsons (season 9)
The Simpsons ninth season originally aired between September 1997 and May 1998, beginning on Sunday, September 21, 1997 with "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson". The show runner for the ninth production season was Mike Scully...
and originally aired on the Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
network on February 15, 1998. Bart, Lisa and other children from Springfield Elementary School are stranded on an island and are forced to work together. Meanwhile, Homer founds his own Internet company. It was written by David S. Cohen
David X. Cohen
David Samuel Cohen , primarily known as David X. Cohen, is an American television writer. He has written for The Simpsons and he is the head writer and executive producer of Futurama.-Early life:...
and directed by Pete Michels
Pete Michels
Pete Michels is an animation director on Family Guy. He has also been the supervising director on Family Guy as well as on the short-lived TV show, Kid Notorious. He started working on The Simpsons in 1990 as a background layout artist. He worked his way up to character layout artist, timer,...
. Guest star James Earl Jones
James Earl Jones
James Earl Jones is an American actor. He is well-known for his distinctive bass voice and for his portrayal of characters of substance, gravitas and leadership...
narrates the final scene of the episode.
Plot
The Springfield Elementary School Model United NationsModel United Nations
Model United Nations is an academic simulation of the United Nations that aims to educate participants about current events, topics in international relations, diplomacy and the United Nations agenda....
club is going on a field trip. On the bus, Bart
Bart Simpson
Bartholomew JoJo "Bart" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the Simpson family. He is voiced by actress Nancy Cartwright and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
, Nelson
Nelson Muntz
Nelson Mandela Muntz is a fictional character and bully from the animated TV series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Nancy Cartwright. Nelson was introduced in Season 1's "Bart the General" as a bully but later turned into a friend of Bart Simpson, who is best identified by his signature laugh .-Role...
, Ralph
Ralph Wiggum
Ralph Wiggum is a recurring fictional character on the animated series The Simpsons, voiced by Nancy Cartwright. The son of Police Chief Wiggum and a classmate of Lisa Simpson, Ralph is best known as the show's resident oddball, and is noted for his non sequiturs and erratic behavior...
and Milhouse
Milhouse Van Houten
Milhouse Mussolini Van Houten is a fictional character featured in the animated television series The Simpsons, voiced by Pamela Hayden. He is Bart Simpson's best friend in Mrs. Krabappel's fourth grade class at Springfield Elementary School....
are playing a game by rolling fruit to the front. Milhouse rolls a grapefruit
Grapefruit
The grapefruit , is a subtropical citrus tree known for its sour fruit, an 18th-century hybrid first bred in Barbados. When found, it was named the "forbidden fruit"; it has also been misidentified with the pomelo or shaddock , one of the parents of this hybrid, the other being sweet orange The...
that gets stuck under the brakes. When bus driver Otto
Otto Mann
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...
attempts to press down on the pedal, it squishes the fruit, and juice squirts into his eyes, causing him to lose control and crash the bus off a bridge into the water.
Otto leaves the children behind in an attempt to swim for help but ends up being washed away by the current. It is later revealed Otto is picked up by Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
fishermen, who plan to use him for slave labor. The students, Bart, Lisa, Milhouse, Nelson, Lewis, Ralph, Martin, Wendell, Sherri and Terri, however, swim to a nearby tropical island. Bart tries to tell the children that being stranded on an island is just like TV where life is easy and cocktail
Cocktail
A cocktail is an alcoholic mixed drink that contains two or more ingredients—at least one of the ingredients must be a spirit.Cocktails were originally a mixture of spirits, sugar, water, and bitters. The word has come to mean almost any mixed drink that contains alcohol...
s are plentiful, comparing it to The Swiss Family Robinson
The Swiss Family Robinson
-History:Written by Swiss pastor Johann David Wyss and edited by his son Johann Rudolf Wyss, the novel was intended to teach his four sons about family values, good husbandry, the uses of the natural world and self-reliance...
, only with more cursing. Reality soon sets in when the island is found to be largely barren and the children lack survival skills. With no food found on the island and no adult supervision, the children rely on snack food retrieved from the sunken bus by Bart. They awaken the next morning to find the snacks all gone. Suspecting Milhouse because of his pot-belly and nacho cheese breath, the students put him on trial and he blames the loss on a mysterious island "monster".
Back at home, Homer
Homer Simpson
Homer Jay Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons and the patriarch of the eponymous family. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared on television, along with the rest of his family, in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
discovers that Ned Flanders
Ned Flanders
Nedward "Ned" Flanders, Jr. is a recurring fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Harry Shearer, and first appeared in the series premiere episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire". He is the next door neighbor to the Simpson family and is generally...
has his own home-based Internet business
Dot-com company
A dot-com company, or simply a dot-com , is a company that does most of its business on the Internet, usually through a website that uses the popular top-level domain, ".com" .While the term can refer to present-day companies, it is also used specifically to refer to companies with...
, Flancrest Enterprises. Homer complains to Marge that everyone except the Simpson family are getting rich off the Internet, and he wants a piece of the action, despite knowing nothing about it. He launches his own dot-com company, Compu-Global-Hyper-Mega-Net, which is later bought out
Buyout
A buyout, in finance, is an investment transaction by which the ownership equity of a company, or a majority share of the stock of the company is acquired. The acquiror thereby "buys out" control of the target company....
by Bill Gates
Bill Gates
William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. Gates is the former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen...
and his goons. Unfortunately, Bill Gates' "buying out" procedure is having his goons destroy Homer's office and break all of his possessions, stating he didn't get rich by writing a lot of checks.
During the trial held by the students, there is insufficient evidence to prove Milhouse ate all the food. Because of this, Bart, acting as judge, acquits Milhouse. The other students are not happy with this verdict and attempt to kill Milhouse. Lisa
Lisa Simpson
Lisa Marie Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons. She is the middle child of the Simpson family. Voiced by Yeardley Smith, Lisa first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987. Cartoonist Matt Groening...
tries to stop the violence, but gets pushed by Nelson. Bart, angered by this, tells everyone to leave Lisa alone. The other students end up chasing Bart, Lisa, and Milhouse into a cave, where it is revealed that Milhouse's "monster" is actually a wild boar. On one of the boar's tusks is an empty bag of chips, revealing that it was the actual culprit in eating the snacks. The students apologize to Milhouse, who reveals that he only took "two sandwiches and a bag of Doritos
Doritos
Doritos is a brand of seasoned tortilla chips created by Arch West and produced since 1964 by the American food company Frito-Lay ....
". They then kill the boar and eat it (with the exception of Lisa, who adheres to her vegetarianism
Lisa the Vegetarian
"Lisa the Vegetarian" is the fifth episode of The Simpsons seventh season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 15, 1995. In the episode, Lisa decides to stop eating meat after bonding with a lamb at a petting zoo...
and licks slime from a rock instead). The episode concludes with a comically obvious deus ex machina
Deus ex machina
A deus ex machina is a plot device whereby a seemingly inextricable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object.-Linguistic considerations:...
ending, narrated by James Earl Jones
James Earl Jones
James Earl Jones is an American actor. He is well-known for his distinctive bass voice and for his portrayal of characters of substance, gravitas and leadership...
:
- So the children learned how to function as a society,
- and eventually they were rescued by, oh, let's say...MoeMoe SzyslakMomar / Morris "Moe" Szyslak is a fictional character in the American animated television series, The Simpsons. He is voiced by Hank Azaria and first appeared in the series premiere episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire"...
.
Production
The couch gag was suggested by Dan CastellanetaDan Castellaneta
Daniel Louis "Dan" Castellaneta is an American actor, voice actor, comedian, singer and screenwriter. Noted for his long-running role as Homer Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons, he voices many other characters on The Simpsons, including Abraham "Grampa" Simpson, Barney Gumble,...
's niece. The movie True Lies
True Lies
True Lies is a 1994 American action-comedy film directed by James Cameron and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Bill Paxton, Tia Carrere, Charlton Heston, and Art Malik. Eliza Dushku also appears in the film in one of her first major film roles...
was the inspiration for the bus crashing against the bridge. To get the fisherman's Chinese correct, Cohen called his friend. When the Chinese
Chinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
actors came, the actors felt Cantonese
Cantonese
Cantonese is a dialect spoken primarily in south China.Cantonese may also refer to:* Yue Chinese, the Chinese language that includes Cantonese* Cantonese cuisine, the cuisine of Guangdong province...
would be more appropriate for the fisherman than Mandarin
Standard Mandarin
Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is the official language of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China , and is one of the four official languages of Singapore....
, so it was changed. Moe was picked to rescue the children, because the writers thought it was funny. A deleted scene had Homer buying anti-stress instruments. He uses them all and gets stressed. According to Mike Scully, this scene was deleted due to the episode being too long.
Cultural references
Most of the episode's plot, namely a group of children trapped on an island, is a reference to William GoldingWilliam Golding
Sir William Gerald Golding was a British novelist, poet, playwright and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate, best known for his novel Lord of the Flies...
's 1954 novel Lord of the Flies
Lord of the Flies
Lord of the Flies is a novel by Nobel Prize-winning author William Golding about a group of British boys stuck on a deserted island who try to govern themselves, with disastrous results...
. The title comes from the 1981 film Das Boot
Das Boot
Das Boot is a 1981 German epic war film written and directed by Wolfgang Petersen, produced by Günter Rohrbach, and starring Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, and Klaus Wennemann...
, although it would be "Der Bus" in German. When the children are squabbling in the classroom, Principal Skinner
Seymour Skinner
Principal W. Seymour Skinner is a fictional character in the American animated sitcom The Simpsons. He is voiced by Harry Shearer. Born in Capitol City, he is the principal of Springfield Elementary School...
restores orders by banging his shoe on the desk. Skinner's actions are a reference to the shoe-banging incident
Shoe-banging incident
Nikita Khrushchev's shoe-banging incident allegedly occurred during the 902nd Plenary Meeting of the UN General Assembly held in New York on 12 October 1960, when the infuriated leader of the Soviet Union was said to have pounded his shoe on his delegate-desk in protest of a speech by Philippine...
by Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
leader Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
at the UN
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
in 1960. When escaping from the other children, Bart, Lisa and Milhouse have to swing across a gap on a vine; Milhouse goes across first, but refuses to throw the vine back in a reference to the opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Raiders of the Lost Ark is a 1981 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by George Lucas, and starring Harrison Ford. It is the first film in the Indiana Jones franchise...
(1981), where the same thing happens to Indiana Jones
Indiana Jones
Colonel Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., Ph.D. is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Indiana Jones franchise. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg created the character in homage to the action heroes of 1930s film serials...
. Ralph's painted face is similar to that of Kiss
KISS (band)
Kiss is an American rock band formed in New York City in January 1973. Well-known for its members' face paint and flamboyant stage outfits, the group rose to prominence in the mid to late 1970s on the basis of their elaborate live performances, which featured fire breathing, blood spitting,...
member Peter Criss
Peter Criss
George Peter John Criscuola , better known as Peter Criss, is an American drummer and singer, best known as the original drummer for the rock band Kiss...
.
Reception
In its original broadcast, "Das Bus" finished 17th in ratings for the week of February 9–15, 1998, with a Nielsen ratingNielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
of 9.9, equivalent to approximately 9.6 million viewing households. It was the third highest-rated show on the Fox network that week, following The X-Files
The X-Files
The X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...
and King of the Hill
King of the Hill
King of the Hill is an American animated dramedy series created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels, that ran from January 12, 1997, to May 6, 2010, on Fox network. It centers on the Hills, a working-class Methodist family in the fictional small town of Arlen, Texas...
.
In a 2006 article in USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
, "Das Bus" was highlighted among the six best episodes of The Simpsons season 9
The Simpsons (season 9)
The Simpsons ninth season originally aired between September 1997 and May 1998, beginning on Sunday, September 21, 1997 with "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson". The show runner for the ninth production season was Mike Scully...
, along with others including "Trash of the Titans
Trash of the Titans
"Trash of the Titans" is the 22nd episode of The Simpsons ninth season and the 200th overall. It originally aired on the Fox network on April 26, 1998...
," "The Last Temptation of Krust
The Last Temptation of Krust
"The Last Temptation of Krust" is the 15th episode of The Simpsons ninth season. It was written by Donick Cary and directed by Mike B. Anderson. The episode first aired on February 22, 1998. Comedian Jay Leno makes a guest appearance...
," "The Cartridge Family
The Cartridge Family
"The Cartridge Family" is the fifth episode of The Simpsons ninth season, which originally aired on November 2, 1997. It was written by John Swartzwelder and directed by Pete Michels. In the episode, Homer purchases a gun to protect his family, of which Marge disapproves...
," "Dumbbell Indemnity
Dumbbell Indemnity
"Dumbbell Indemnity" is the sixteenth episode of the ninth season of the animated television series The Simpsons, which originally aired March 1, 1998. It was written by Ron Hauge and directed by Dominic Polcino. The episode sees Moe trying to keep his girlfriend by using a large amount of money,...
," and "The Joy of Sect
The Joy of Sect
"The Joy of Sect" is the thirteenth episode of The Simpsons ninth season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 8, 1998. In the episode, a cult called the "Movementarians" takes over Springfield, and Homer and the rest of the Simpson family become members...
". The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, called it "A fantastic episode. Ignore the Internet business side, and wallow in the cleverness of the children trapped on the island. Bart has never been cleverer, Nelson more menacing, and Milhouse more geekish. Great stuff with a delightful ending that is so witty and obvious, that it's annoying you never imagined they'd get away with it."
The episode has become study material for sociology courses at University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, where it is used to "examine issues of the production and reception of cultural objects, in this case, a satirical cartoon show", and to figure out what it is "trying to tell audiences about aspects primarily of American society, and, to a lesser extent, about other societies." Some questions asked in the courses include: "What aspects of American society are being addressed in the episode? What aspects of them are used to make the points? How is the satire conveyed: through language? Drawing? Music? Is the behavior of each character consistent with his/her character as developed over the years? Can we identify elements of the historical/political context that the writers are satirizing? What is the difference between satire and parody?"
External links
- "Das Bus" at The Simpsons.com