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The Simpsons episode
"Das Bus"
Episode no.	192
Prod. code	5F11
Orig. airdate	February 15, 1998
Show runner(s)	Mike Scully
Written by	David S. Cohen
Directed by	Pete Michels
Chalkboard	None
Couch gag	Everyone is a frog and Maggie is a tadpole that jump onto a lily pad; Homer uses his tongue to turn on the TV.
Guest star(s)	James Earl Jones as the narrator Phil Hartman as Troy McClure
DVD commentary	Matt Groening Mike Scully George Meyer David X. Cohen Pete Michels
Season 9 September 21, 1997 – May 17, 1998
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
List of all The Simpsons episodes
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"Das Bus" is the 14th episode of the ninth season of The Simpsons, and a parody of the book and film Lord of the Flies.

The whole family watches TV for the whole night, much to Marge's protesting. By morning she realizes that the dozey kids need to go to school while Homer calls in sick at work: "Mr. Smithers, I won't be coming to work today. Why? Because I have smallpox... well it wasn't wiped out in my house!". The Springfield Elementary School Model United Nations has an excursion where the bus ends up in disaster after falling from a bridge and into the sea, ending up in the middle of the ocean.

The bus driver Otto leaves the kids behind in an attempt to get help but ends up being washed away by the current. The students however (Bart, Lisa, Milhouse, Nelson, Ralph, Martin, Sherri, Terri, Wendell and Lewis) swim to a nearby tropical island. Bart tries to tell the kids that being stranded on an island is just like TV where life is easy and cocktails are plentiful, but reality soon sets in when the island is largely barren and the kids lack survivalist skills. With no food and no adult supervision, the kids rely on snack food retrieved from the sunken bus by Bart, but they awake the next morning to find the snacks are missing. 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". At the trial, Bart is elected judge.

Meanwhile, Otto is "rescued" by Chinese fishermen in search of slave laborers, who say in their native tongue he can be put to work in a cannery.

Due to lack to evidence, Bart forces himself to acquit Milhouse, but the other students are unconvinced and attempt to kill him. Lisa tries to stop this, but then gets pushed up. Bart, angered by this, tells everyone to leave Lisa alone, and at that point, he, Lisa, and Milhouse get chased by the other students that are trying to kill them. This is thwarted only when the monster is proved real - except, it is a wild boar. In one of the boar's tusks was an empty bag of chips, proving that the boar ate all of the food. The students apologized to Milhouse for blaming him, and then kill the boar and eat it (except Lisa, who is a vegetarian, and eats the slime off rocks that the boar was subsisting on). The episode ends here, but at this point a narrator intrudes and tells the audience that the students will somehow be rescued by Moe.

In the subplot for the episode, Homer (seemingly unaware of his children's plight) launches Compu-Global-Hyper-Mega-Net, an Internet business. He does so after finding out Ned Flanders has his own home-based Internet business, Flancrest Enterprises, and is making money out of it. Homer claims to Marge that everyone except the Simpson family are getting rich due to the Internet, and he wants a piece of the action. His business is later 'bought out' by Bill Gates' goons.

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.^[1]

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".^[2]

• 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.

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"Das Bus"

The Simpsons Portal

• "Das Bus" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive