Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment

During St. Patrick's Day, Springfield gathers in downtown for events and activities. A prohibitionist movement emerges in Springfield after Bart accidentally got intoxicated during the St. Patrick's Day celebration. The municipal government, wanting to keep the voters during election season, agrees to consider a ban. They discover that alcohol has actually been banned in Springfield for two centuries, and moves to enforce the law, prompting Moe to disguise his bar as a pet shop. However alcohol still continues to flow into the town due to the mob and with their bribery of the local law enforcers. With the town becoming impatient with the police's incompetence, Chief Wiggum is replaced by Rex Banner, an officer of the U.S. Treasury Department. Banner sets up blockages on the city entrance bridges and buries all of the alcohol in a mass grave at the city dumps.

In the meantime, Homer figures out a way to keep Moe's bar operating, by becoming a bootlegger. One night, he and Bart sneak out to the city dump to reclaim the beer that was disposed of when the Prohibition law was enacted, escaping Banner in the process. He then sets up shop in his basement pouring the beer into the finger holes of bowling balls. Using an intricate set of pipes under the Bowl-A-Rama, he bowls the balls into Moe's. Upon discovering it, Marge actually finds it a very good idea, since Homer is actually using his intellectual faculties and that he is making enough money to support the family. The media realizes someone is allowing Springfield's underground alcohol trade to flourish, and they give the still-unknown Homer the nickname "Beer Baron".

When his supply of liquor runs out, Homer begins to distill his own homemade liquor. However, his stills begin to explode, due to Homer not knowing how to properly make his own alcohol, and he agrees to stop when Marge asks him to. He is then confronted by a desperate ex-Chief Wiggum who is going through his garbage, and both confide their distaste for Banner. In an attempt to rekindle Wiggum's career, Homer allows the former police chief to turn him in, hoping that Wiggum will get his job back by doing what Banner couldn't. After confessing to his crimes in public, Homer, originally believing he would be let off with a light punishment, faces expulsion from the town (and presumably death) by an archaic catapult, showing how anachronistic the law really was. Marge tells everyone that this law and punishment makes no sense and it is meaningless to punish Homer, especially for their freedom to drink. While Banner steps up to lecture the town on the reasons why the law must be upheld, he accidentally steps on the catapult; Wiggum then has him catapulted. The town clerk then finds out that the Prohibition law was actually repealed a year later back then, and so Homer is released. Mayor Quimby then asks if Homer can become the Beer Baron again and supply the town with alcohol, but Homer tells him that he is retired. Within five minutes Fat Tony is only too happy to oblige, and Springfield salutes alcohol's qualities as Homer proclaims his undying love of alcohol by saying, "To alcohol! The cause of... and solution to... all of life's problems." The entire town cheer Homer with beers in hands.

The main plot of the episode is based on the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, in which alcohol was banned in the United States.[3] As The Simpsons has many episodes that have stories and jokes related to alcohol, the writers thought it was strange that they had never done an episode related to Prohibition, and that the idea seemed "perfect."[3] The episode features a vast amount of Irish stereotyping at the St. Patrick's Day celebration. This was a reference to when Conan O'Brien was a writer for the show and was of Irish descent, and his use of Irish stereotypes.[3] Various writers were very concerned about Bart getting drunk. This was why he drank the beer through a horn, to show that it was only accidental.[3] This was a toned down version of what was in John Swartzwelder's original script.[4] Originally Chief Wiggum's first line was "They're either drunk or on the cocaine", but it was deemed too old-fashioned.[5] The discovery of "more lines on the parchment" was a simple deus ex machina to get Homer freed and to end the episode.[3]

When Homer first enters Moe's "Pet Shop", the man that tips his hat to him outside was a background character used in the early seasons.[5] The riot at the beginning of the episode was taken from footage from the end of the season 6 episode "Lisa on Ice" and updated.[6] The line "To alcohol! The cause of... and solution to... all of life's problems," was originally the act break line at the end of act two, but was moved to the very end of the episode.[7]

The shot of the diner, a reference to Edward Hopper's Nighthawks.

The episode parodies the series The Untouchables, with the character of Rex Banner based on Robert Stack's portrayal of Eliot Ness,[1][8] and the voice of the narrator being based on that of Walter Winchell.[5] Barney leaving flowers outside the Duff brewery is, according to show runner Josh Weinstein, a reference to people leaving flowers at the grave sites of various Hollywood figures like Rudolph Valentino and Marilyn Monroe.[3] The shot of the diner quotes Edward Hopper's Nighthawks painting.[3]

In its original broadcast, "Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment" finished 39th in ratings for the week of March 10–26, 1997, with a Nielsen rating of 8.9, equivalent to approximately 8.6 million viewing households. It was the second highest-rated show on the Fox network that week, following The X-Files.[9]

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 nice episode in which Homer actually devises a clever plan to keep the beer flowing."[1] The Toronto Star described the episode as one of Bob Anderson's "classics."[10] The Daily Telegraph also characterized the episode as one of "The 10 Best Simpsons TV Episodes."[11] Robert Canning gave the episode 9.8/10 calling it his favorite episode of the series.[12]

Homer's line "To alcohol! The cause of... and solution to... all of life's problems," was described by Josh Weinstein as "one of the best, most truthful Simpsons statements ever."[3] In 2008, Entertainment Weekly included it in their list of "24 Endlessly Quotable TV Quips".[13]

A scene in which a British chip shop named "John Bull's Fish & Chips" blows up was censored in Britain and Ireland.[14]

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• "Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment" at The Simpsons.com
• "Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment episode capsule". The Simpsons Archive.
• "Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment" at TV.com
• "Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment" at the Internet Movie Database