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The writers on The Simpsons were trying to figure out which secondary, and tertiary, characters could sustain episodes. Some, like Krusty and Skinner, proved viable. Others, like Otto Mann, did not. However, before the folks working on The Simpsons could know that, they had to give it a try. Thus, “The Otto Show.”
This is the only episode of The Simpsons to really focus on Otto in any way. They realized he worked better as a character delivering occasional jokes here and there. His entire bit is that he’s a druggie who drives a school bus. He has a head for metal, and a head for pot, and you can mine a few jokes out of that, but that’s about it. In “The Otto Show,” Otto gets fired by the school, again, and after he gets evicted he comes to stay with The Simpsons because Bart thinks he’s cool. It’s a pretty sweaty sitcom premise, the likes of which the show would later parody with Roy. Otto annoys Homer and Marge, Homer finally lays into him, and Otto is able to pass his driving test to get his job back because, of course, Patty and Selma run things at the DMV and Otto lets it be known he fully wants to spite Homer.
“The Otto Show” is…fine. It basically tells the one Otto story it could plausibly tell. I mean, unless they wanted to have him get sober like Barney, but with Barney, he’s good friends with Homer. He hung out at Moe’s, a regular setting for the show. Why would Otto be interacting with anybody other than the kids on the bus? The plot has to be flimsy to make it plausible.
Spinal Tap is also in this episode, and it’s kind of funny to see them treated like a real band.
