Springfield enacts prohibition after Bart is accidentally intoxicated during the Saint Patrick's Day celebration. Mayor Quimby discovers 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. Alcohol continues to flow when Springfield Mafia don Fat Tony bribes the local police. When the townfolk grow impatient with the police department's incompetence, Chief Wiggum is replaced by Rex Banner, an officer of the U.S. Treasury Department. Banner erects roadblocks on all bridges leading into Springfield and buries the town's supply of alcohol at the city dump. Homer and Bart retrieve the buried kegs of beer and become bootleggers. Homer hides the beer in the finger holes of bowling balls; using an intricate network of pipes under Barney's Bowl-A-Rama, he bowls the balls into Moe's. Upon discovering Homer's scheme, Marge actually approves since Homer's savvy is helping support the family. The media reveal Springfield's underground alcohol trade is flourishing because of the mysterious "Beer Baron". When his supply of liquor runs out, Homer begins to distill his ownhomemade liquor. His stills repeatedly explode and he agrees to stop making bathtub booze at Marge's request. Unemployed and desperate, ex-Chief Wiggum tries to mug Homer but fails when Homer realizes his gun has no trigger. The men discuss their shared distaste for Banner, since he has ruined both men's livelihoods. To help Wiggum get his job back, Homer allows Wiggum to apprehend him and do what Banner could not. Homer publicly confesses his crimes, thinking he will face a light punishment. Instead he is sentenced to expulsion from town — and a likely death — by a large catapult. Marge protests the draconian law and punishment, claiming it infringes citizens' right to drink. When Banner starts to explain why the law must be upheld, he accidentally steps on the device and Wiggum has him catapulted from town. The town clerk discovers that the prohibition law was repealed a year after it was enacted, so Homer is freed. Mayor Quimby asks Homer to become the town's Beer Baron again, but Homer insists he is retired. Within five minutes, Fat Tony floods Springfield with alcohol, leading the entire town to toast the return of its beloved booze.
Production
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. 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." 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. 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. This was a toned down version of what was in John Swartzwelder's original script. Originally Chief Wiggum's first line was "They're either drunk or on the cocaine", but it was deemed too old-fashioned. The discovery of "more lines on the parchment" was a simple deus ex machina to get Homer freed and to end the episode. 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. The riotat the beginning of the episode was taken from footage from the end of the season 6 episode "Lisa on Ice" and updated. 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.
Censorship
During the riot, a scene where an Irish mob starts pummeling each other after a British chip shop named "John Bull's Fish & Chips" blows up was censored on British television and the rest of Europe. The episode first aired while the conflict in Northern Ireland known as The Troubles was on and four years after the Shankill Road bombing in which ten people were killed by a Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb which exploded prematurely in a fish shop.
Cultural references
The episode parodies the series The Untouchables, with the character of Rex Banner based on Robert Stack's portrayal of Eliot Ness, and the voice of the narrator being based on that of Walter Winchell. Barney leaving flowers outside the Duff brewery is, according to show runnerJosh Weinstein, a reference to people leaving flowers at the grave sites of various Hollywood figures like Rudolph Valentino and Marilyn Monroe. a reference to the Poe Toaster. The shot of the diner quotes Edward Hopper's Nighthawks painting. A sign in Moe's Bar says "No Irish Need Apply" a reference to Anti-Irish sentiment.
Reception
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. 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." The Toronto Star described the episode as one of Bob Anderson's "classics." The Daily Telegraph also characterized the episode as one of "The 10 Best Simpsons TV Episodes." Robert Canning gave the episode 9.8/10 calling it his favorite episode of the series. 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." In 2008, Entertainment Weekly included it in their list of "24 Endlessly Quotable TV Quips".
