WEBVTT

NOTE Prohibition Through the Eyes of Homer Simpson

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Good evening, everybody. I'm Eric Phillips, President of Young Americans for Liberty here

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at Auburn University. I'm very happy to say our chapter's been getting a lot of attention

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these past couple weeks. In the past two weeks, four articles have been published about this

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very chapter, one more impressively being on national headlines of the college section

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for USA Today.

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This is actually our first year being an official organization

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under the bylaws of Auburn University.

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So if you haven't done so, you can

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sign up for our email list on that blue clipboard over there.

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I'm happy to see such a great turnout for our first big event,

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Prohibition Through the Eyes of Homer Simpson.

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This will be led by Austrian economist Dr. Mark Thornton.

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He teaches economics at Auburn University

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and is a senior fellow here at the Mises Institute.

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He also wrote the book, The Economics of Prohibition,

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which has caught a lot of mainstream media attention

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and was said by Murray Rothbard to be an excellent work

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making an important contribution to scholarship

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as well as to the public policy debate.

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So without any further ado,

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please give a warm welcome to Dr. Mark Thornton.

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Thank you, Eric. I want to welcome all of you to the Mises Institute. I know it's many of you

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are your first visit here to the Mises Institute. We've been here actually for 27 years now and we

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have programs for undergraduate students, graduate students, professors and the general public. We

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We also have a variety of publications in our website, Mises.org, has more content and traffic

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than just about any economics webpage in the world.

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So I encourage you to look into our programs as well as our website, there's a lot of very

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very interesting stuff on there.

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Now what I'm going to be talking about tonight is Homer Simpson versus the 18th Amendment.

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And as a graduate student here at Auburn University, I wrote my dissertation on the topic of the

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economics of prohibition.

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And then after that, I spent about 10 or 15 years publishing on that subject, on public

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policy related to alcohol prohibition of the 1920s, as well as the war on drugs, as well

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as academic publications concerning prohibition.

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And then I kind of gave up on the topic of prohibition.

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And I felt like I had written everything I needed to write about the subject.

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And then a couple of years ago, a friend of mine came up with the idea of writing or editing

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a book called Homer Economicus as a playoff on homo economicus or economic man.

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He was going to put together a book about Homer Simpson economic man.

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And he came to Auburn specifically to get me to write one of the chapters and it was

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about a particular episode of The Simpsons called Homer versus the 18th Amendment.

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And so that's got me back into writing about the economics of prohibition, both the alcohol

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prohibition but more so on current events in the war on drugs.

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And so that's my background to this topic as well as to the topic of tonight regarding

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the Simpsons.

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Now I'm sure everyone has seen the Simpsons and knows a good deal about what Homer Simpson

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is all about.

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He's every man in society.

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He's a prototypical example of the drinking class.

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And the drinking class is actually a large component of society.

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Most people, most adults drink, and so the drinking class includes lots of very well-educated

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people and not so educated people, men and women from all demographic groups and ages.

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And so one of the reasons for the success of The Simpsons is because its main character

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represents your everyday ordinary American with all their faults, drawbacks, imperfections and so forth.

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And so we tend to pity this class of people that always has problems, everyday ordinary problems

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that they're trying to fix. They usually make it worse. And so the general, our general response is

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to pity Homer Simpson and to laugh at him as well, of course.

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This particular episode, I'm not an expert on The Simpsons.

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I don't have box sets of all the episodes or anything like that.

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I don't even remember a lot of the characters and I haven't even seen all the episodes.

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So that's not my expertise here. But I know enough about

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Homer and The Simpsons to tell you that,

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First of all, this is one of the best episodes in the history of the show.

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The connections it makes with reality are truly amazing and things are reversed in this

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particular episode.

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Homer is not the bumbling, fumbling mechanic at the nuclear power plant.

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He actually turns into the hero.

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So this is a very unusual episode as well.

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And the reason I think that the writers reversed Homer's role and in a sense turned everything

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upside down so that Homer was the hero was because Prohibition does pretty much the same

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thing.

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sets an entirely new environment and people become something other than themselves.

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So when we look at Prohibition, in the theory of the Prohibition, where the Prohibitionists

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look at the situation and say, hey, you know, there's problems with something like drinking.

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There could be fights, there could be drunkenness, children may be harmed.

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And so the idea of the Prohibitionists is we're going to make it illegal, we're going

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going to make it more expensive and it might not work, but at least it's going to impose

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a higher cost on these drinkers and as a result of the higher cost, people are going to consume

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less alcohol and therefore if they're consuming less alcohol, there's going to be fewer problems

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in society.

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fewer fights, less violence, less crime, less bad health, drinking, disease, all that kind

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of stuff.

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So the prohibitionists say, well, if we make it a prohibition, we impose a higher cost,

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you're going to get a smaller quantity consumed and therefore it's going to dry up some of

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the social problems that we associate with drinking.

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But what my research shows is that, yes, prohibition does raise the price of the product.

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It can decrease the quantity consumed, that's the basic economics of it.

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But in reality, when you prohibit something, everything else changes.

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So it's not just supply and demand, price and quantity changes in prohibition, but it's

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everything about the marketplace that exists.

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So how something is being produced, that's going to change.

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How it's distributed, that's going to change.

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The Product itself, that's going to change.

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How contracts are enforced, that's going to change.

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And so, as price changes, you're going to get all sorts of other changes in the economy,

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in the black market or the underground economy.

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And what we find is that all of these other changes are bad.

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All of these other changes actually have negative effects.

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So that instead of solving social problems, prohibition actually makes them worse, okay?

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So that prohibition is a self-defeating policy, and it's not the people who are enforcing

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the prohibition.

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It's not the penalties that we're meeting out to the people who violate the prohibition.

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There's nothing, no imperfection in the law or the system of enforcement and punishment

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that we can adjust to make it work.

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It's just that all of the prices and all of the incentives are working in the absolute

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wrong direction.

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So instead of getting less crime, we get more crime.

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Instead of less violence, we get more violence.

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Instead of less criminal activity, we get more criminal activity.

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Instead of making consumption safer, we actually make it much more dangerous because we end

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up providing incentives for the people who supply these illegal products to make them

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as small as possible.

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So they want to make it as potent as possible.

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And as a result, they make it actually more dangerous and more addictive.

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So on all of these margins, on all of these economic margins, prohibition pushes us in

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the wrong direction and actually is counterproductive with respect to social problems.

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This episode is just a tremendous recap of what happened in the United States from 1920

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1933, when we prohibited alcohol consumption and production in the United States.

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Now obviously with 22 minutes, they're going to take some shortcuts, they're going to gloss

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over things, the action is fast paced, but with respect to all of the phenomenon that

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resulted from prohibition, they did just a tremendous job of incorporating all the various

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aspects, all of the impacts that prohibition brings about.

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Two of the most important things that I want you to pay attention to as we go through the

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video, two of the things that I stressed in my own dissertation with respect to alcohol

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prohibition was that the first thing that it did was it changed the type of product

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that was being produced and consumed in the United States.

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So that when alcohol was prohibited, what they first did was they used up what they

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already had, okay?

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But as the cupboards ran dry, as the inventories went to zero, they had to come up with a way

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of producing alcohol in this new environment.

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What we found looking back in the 1920s is that instead of producing beer and wine, which

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the vast majority of drinkers back then consumed, that all the new production went into the

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production of whiskey, hard liquor, and very often they would produce it at potency levels

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twice that of a normal whiskey or vodka.

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so that it would be like Myers 151 rum, twice as potent as a normal rum, or Everclear, products

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like that.

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Highly potent and poorly made, okay, so it was poorly made and highly potent.

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So that the sales of whiskey went from less than 40% prior and after prohibition to upwards

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Awards of 90%, okay, so the market was completely skewed towards this much more potent, much

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more dangerous and much more impure in the sense that it had dangerous impurities in

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it.

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The second major thing is that during the 1920s, violence, crime and destruction of

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of Property increased dramatically during the 1920s as a result of prohibition.

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So there was a lot more violence in society, there was a lot more crime, and there was

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a lot more destruction of private property during that time.

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The murder rate in the United States in 1920 went from 50 murders per million people to

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100 murders per million people per year and it stayed that way until Prohibition was repealed

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in 1933 and then it very quickly by 1935 went back down to the norm of 50 murders per million

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people per year.

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So you can see statistically that Prohibition encouraged murders as what we'll come to learn

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are rumrunners, bootleggers, people who are transporting this illegal liquor had to use

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guns to enforce their contracts and to protect their sales territory.

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So the violence increased.

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Okay with that, I'm going to start to take a look at the episode itself.

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Now the big question in a lot of people's minds is how do you get prohibition in the

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in the first place. It always seems so stupid and so counterproductive to people who actually

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are aware of the reality of prohibition. Well, it takes a lot of factors to fall into place.

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There has to be some rationale to establish prohibition. And one of the rationales is

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to protect children.

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That's very often a rationale for public policies, to protect children, to keep them safe, to

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keep them away from dangerous things that society has.

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And so the argument that we have to think about the children and curtailing the availability

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of alcohol is always going to be an important matter with respect to products like alcohol

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and drugs.

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Another thing that usually has to come into play is scapegoats in society, demographic

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groups within society that are labeled as scapegoats or as reasons why we need to create

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a prohibition.

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So with alcohol prohibition, people pointed to, in particular, the Irish people who were

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Always Getting Drunk and Causing Problems and Fighting, the Germans, the Italians, the

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big drinking groups that had arrived in the United States prior to Prohibition.

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With cocaine, the scapegoat was the idea that black men who took cocaine would go violent

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and be uncontrollable and couldn't be stopped with a pistol bullet.

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And so because of that, that was a story that was often given that we needed prohibition

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of cocaine because if we allowed black men to have cocaine, then we would just put these

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crazy people into society.

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Of course, that's not true.

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With marijuana prohibition, no one testified for marijuana prohibition in Congress, but

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it passed anyways.

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And one of the arguments with marijuana prohibition is that if we let the Mexican, if we let the

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domestic Mexicans consume marijuana they would be lazy and they wouldn't work and they wouldn't

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take care of their families.

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And so that was a generally accepted idea that Mexicans like to smoke pot and if they

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smoke pot they wouldn't work.

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And even I was like, you know, my whole life I just sort of assumed that, yeah, Mexicans

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because we're lazy, of course, until we got into the housing bubble and then we realized

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you can't stop these Mexicans from working.

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So it's all these scapegoating of minority groups have to come into play in order to

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pass a prohibition.

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You have to have muck-raking media, media that just want to stir up a story, get things

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stirred up so that more people are reading their newspapers and so forth.

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You have to have the support of religious groups, and with Prohibition, the Women's

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Temperance, the Women's Christian Temperance Union was a group of women who were teetotallers,

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which means they didn't drink.

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They were middle-class American WASPs, which were white Anglo-Saxon Protestants, who didn't

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like the idea of people drinking and having fun, OK?

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So you need some kind of support for that.

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And then you also have to have a lack of arguments against prohibition, OK?

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So if there's good arguments against prohibition, then it's hard to implement it.

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So you have to have bad arguments in place in order to get that.

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So what we see here with this episode, Homer versus the Eighteenth Amendment, it opens

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on St. Patrick's Day.

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And so we're going to see what happened on St. Patrick's Day in Springfield.

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So, it's St. Patrick's Day.

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You sure look stupid in that green dress, Lise.

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That's funny. I don't feel stupid.

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Hey, everybody's wearing green.

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Oh, no.

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Happy St. Patrick's Day, loser!

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Ow! Quit it!

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It's the wearing of the green, Bart!

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Pinch, pinch, pinch!

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No one's pinching his legs!

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Now, this is a really funny scene right here. Moe at his best.

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Moe, it's been St. Patrick's Day for hours and I'm still not drunk yet. Oh, it's never

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going to be nine o'clock. Oh, Moe, thank God you're here. We'd like to come in and

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drink please. We kicked down the back door but then it was a metal door. Yeah.

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See, this is Homer at the way he typically is. He changes during the episode.

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All right, listen up. This is the busiest drinking day of the year.

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Where are the designated drivers? Beat it! I got no room for cheapskates.

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Top of the morning to ye on this great, drizzly afternoon.

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Kent O. Brockman, live on Main Street, where today everyone is a little bit Irish.

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Except, of course, for the gays and the Italians.

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Parades just bring out so many emotions in me. Joy, excitement, looking.

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Mom, can I go buy one of those long plastic horns?

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Oh, Bart, we've bought those before and you always just throw them out the car window on the ride home.

226
00:20:29.180 --> 00:20:32.180
I get bored with them, but that won't happen this time.

227
00:20:36.180 --> 00:20:40.180
Beep, beep, coming through. Hey, Notre Dame, move it or lose it.

228
00:20:40.180 --> 00:21:10.120
The destruction of the property is a British fish-and-chip

229
00:21:10.120 --> 00:21:15.120
restaurant, which, of course, the Irish were always blowing up in Northern Ireland.

230
00:21:15.120 --> 00:21:22.120
Are these the things we think of when we think of the Irish?

231
00:21:22.120 --> 00:21:37.720
Hey, give me some room! Watch it, Gumbel-Shamers!

232
00:21:37.720 --> 00:21:47.720
Hey, look, everybody, free beer! Open your yaps, boyos!

233
00:21:47.720 --> 00:22:02.720
Everybody! Everybody get naked! Come on, don't be stuck up, it's going to be great!

234
00:22:02.720 --> 00:22:07.720
Well, why not? This party's just getting started!

235
00:22:07.720 --> 00:22:11.720
Stop the celebration! That small boy is drunk!

236
00:22:17.720 --> 00:22:31.720
Look at me! I'm the Prime Minister of Ireland!

237
00:22:31.720 --> 00:22:35.720
Hey, home, ain't that your kid on TV?

238
00:22:39.720 --> 00:22:41.720
What are you looking at?

239
00:22:41.720 --> 00:22:49.220
What are you looking at? The innocent words of a drunken child.

240
00:22:49.220 --> 00:22:53.220
Well, I'll tell you what we're looking at, young man. A town gone mad.

241
00:22:53.220 --> 00:22:57.220
A town whose very conscience was washed away in a tide of beer and green vomit.

242
00:22:57.220 --> 00:22:59.720
I'm going down to Moe's for a couple beers.

243
00:22:59.720 --> 00:23:00.720
I'll come with you.

244
00:23:00.720 --> 00:23:05.220
No! No more drinking. I'm tired of looking like the world's worst mother.

245
00:23:05.220 --> 00:23:11.220
Oh, honey, you're not the world's worst mother. What about that freezer lady in Georgia?

246
00:23:11.220 --> 00:23:21.220
But what's the solution? Are we so bereft of ideas that we must revive the antiquated notion of prohibition? Channel 6 says yes.

247
00:23:21.220 --> 00:23:29.220
Prohibition. They tried that in the movies and it didn't work. I predict this is the last we'll be hearing about prohibition.

248
00:23:29.220 --> 00:23:33.220
We want prohibition! We want prohibition!

249
00:23:33.220 --> 00:23:36.220
You can't seriously want to ban alcohol?

250
00:23:36.220 --> 00:23:40.220
Some good lines here from the mayor and the police chief.

251
00:23:40.220 --> 00:23:47.220
It tastes great, makes women appear more attractive, and makes a person virtually invulnerable to criticism.

252
00:23:47.220 --> 00:23:51.220
Won't somebody please think of the children?

253
00:23:51.220 --> 00:23:53.220
What kind of an example are we setting?

254
00:23:53.220 --> 00:24:00.220
Ladies, please, all our founding fathers, astronauts and World Series heroes have been either drunk or on cocaine.

255
00:24:00.220 --> 00:24:09.220
Wait, looky here. Seems there's been a prohibition law on the books in Springfield for 200 years.

256
00:24:09.220 --> 00:24:12.220
Well, it's just never all been enforced.

257
00:24:12.220 --> 00:24:14.220
Get out of here, old clerk guy.

258
00:24:14.220 --> 00:24:18.220
There's also an law requiring ducks to wear long pants.

259
00:24:18.220 --> 00:24:20.220
Wait a minute, let me see that.

260
00:24:20.220 --> 00:24:23.220
Well, I'll be darned long pants.

261
00:24:23.220 --> 00:24:25.220
Read the other one, the non-duck one.

262
00:24:25.220 --> 00:24:32.220
And spiritual beverages are hereby prohibited under penalty of catapult.

263
00:24:39.220 --> 00:24:48.060
Did you see this, Bernice? Oh, my.

264
00:24:48.060 --> 00:24:53.980
So that's how Prohibition comes to Springfield. Of course, in the United States, it took a

265
00:24:53.980 --> 00:25:03.220
hundred years. The writers of The Simpsons decided to speed that up with a clerical error

266
00:25:03.220 --> 00:25:08.340
finding the Prohibition had been on the book for 200 years, so they just sort of jumped

267
00:25:08.340 --> 00:25:14.400
to Head. But they did put in all of the elements there. You see the think of the child argument.

268
00:25:14.400 --> 00:25:22.340
You see the middle-class women's arguing in front of City Hall to get this prohibition

269
00:25:22.340 --> 00:25:29.800
and to get things cleaned up. And of course, the punishment for violating the prohibition

270
00:25:29.800 --> 00:25:39.140
is to be catapulted out of town which is sort of showing that the punishment for violating

271
00:25:39.140 --> 00:25:45.640
prohibition is unreasonable and of course also the fact that the people can't believe

272
00:25:45.640 --> 00:25:47.960
that a prohibition was enacted.

273
00:25:47.960 --> 00:25:50.700
That was true in the United States in 1920.

274
00:25:50.700 --> 00:25:57.260
People couldn't believe that it would finally come through because prohibitionists had been

275
00:25:57.260 --> 00:26:03.580
and working for 100 years to try to get prohibition nationwide and they could never do it.

276
00:26:03.580 --> 00:26:07.780
So prohibition has been enacted, and now we're going to take a look at, yes?

277
00:26:07.780 --> 00:26:12.580
One of the reasons too that it was lawyered for was that women in the temperance movement

278
00:26:12.580 --> 00:26:17.580
were victims of a lot of abuse, and they correlated it with alcohol, and you just said that was

279
00:26:17.580 --> 00:26:18.580
all of the reasons.

280
00:26:18.580 --> 00:26:21.180
That was one of the major ones I know I spent it out.

281
00:26:21.180 --> 00:26:30.860
Well, I think it was a reason, particularly husbands who would drink up their pay before

282
00:26:30.860 --> 00:26:37.740
they actually got home and be abusive to the wife and the children, but for the leaders

283
00:26:37.740 --> 00:26:44.400
of the organization, it had a lot to do with just general social problems that they saw

284
00:26:44.400 --> 00:26:51.100
around them and that made their lives more difficult.

285
00:26:51.100 --> 00:26:55.100
So in any case, we get the prohibition.

286
00:26:55.100 --> 00:27:07.140
You can't produce alcohol anymore and so there's a quick end to drinking in Springfield, legally.

287
00:27:07.140 --> 00:27:13.620
But then of course, the illegal marketplace comes into play and we get speakeasies which

288
00:27:13.620 --> 00:27:17.100
are illegal bars or saloons.

289
00:27:17.100 --> 00:27:24.860
We get bootleggers and rumrunners who are people who transport alcohol illegally, rumrunning

290
00:27:24.860 --> 00:27:29.700
occurs at sea, bootlegging occurs on land.

291
00:27:29.700 --> 00:27:33.240
We get bribery of public officials.

292
00:27:33.240 --> 00:27:42.520
We get organized crime, okay, organized crime bribes public officials in order to establish

293
00:27:42.520 --> 00:27:49.880
and Social Monopoly and without being penalized by the law.

294
00:27:49.880 --> 00:27:56.720
This leads to calls for more enforcement, political pressure for more enforcement and

295
00:27:56.720 --> 00:28:04.000
so eventually a character from the US Treasury Department, Rex Banner, is brought in to stamp

296
00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:10.600
out the illegal marketplace and Rex Banner, his look and his voice are modeled after those

297
00:28:10.600 --> 00:28:17.680
shows of Elliot Ness, on the TV show The Untouchables and as a matter of fact the narrator's voice

298
00:28:17.680 --> 00:28:24.540
on this episode is a mimic of Walter Winchell who was the narrator on The Untouchables.

299
00:28:24.540 --> 00:28:28.840
Now that show hasn't been on the air for many, many decades so you'd have to actually go

300
00:28:28.840 --> 00:28:36.660
and find, look it up but you'll see that basically that Rex Banner and The Untouchables were

301
00:28:36.660 --> 00:28:40.420
were untouchable because they would not accept bribes.

302
00:28:40.420 --> 00:28:46.820
Most law enforcement officials in the United States during the 1920s accepted bribes.

303
00:28:46.820 --> 00:28:48.820
Eliot Ness would not.

304
00:28:48.820 --> 00:28:56.060
And so that's going to play a major role because if law enforcement aren't willing to take

305
00:28:56.060 --> 00:29:01.520
bribes, then organized crime cannot be organized.

306
00:29:01.520 --> 00:29:08.640
and so it has to be thrown onto the disorganized crime marketplace basically.

307
00:29:08.640 --> 00:29:13.600
And with Banner, you get all sorts of violent and destructive tactics.

308
00:29:13.600 --> 00:29:21.120
He won't take a bribe and he's basically very ineffective at enforcing prohibition.

309
00:29:21.120 --> 00:29:25.360
So he won't take a bribe but he doesn't really get the job done anyways.

310
00:29:25.360 --> 00:29:32.740
So that's to point out the fact that it doesn't matter who's enforcing the prohibition,

311
00:29:32.740 --> 00:29:34.460
it still doesn't work.

312
00:29:34.460 --> 00:29:41.700
Eliot Ness, for all his honesty and for all of his efforts and for all of his special

313
00:29:41.700 --> 00:29:50.560
units never actually captured what he was hired to do which was get Al Capone, the famous

314
00:29:50.560 --> 00:29:52.760
gangster of the 1920s.

315
00:29:52.760 --> 00:30:03.760
Capone was actually arrested, tried, and convicted for tax evasion, not for evading prohibition.

316
00:30:03.760 --> 00:30:30.760
No, we're not worried. Our customers buy Duff for its robust taste, and on its alcoholic content, I predict our new alcohol-free Duff Zero will sell even better than our previous brand.

317
00:30:30.760 --> 00:30:35.760
30 minutes later.

318
00:30:35.760 --> 00:30:40.760
Well, that's the end of me.

319
00:30:40.760 --> 00:30:45.760
Deadline! Springfield! With Prohibition back in force,

320
00:30:45.760 --> 00:30:50.760
sobriety's peaceful slumber was shattered by its noisy neighbor, the Speakeasy.

321
00:30:50.760 --> 00:30:55.760
Glad you're fine.

322
00:30:55.760 --> 00:30:59.760
The sobriety's peaceful slumber was shattered by its noisy neighbor, the speakeasy.

323
00:30:59.760 --> 00:31:01.760
Glad you're finally back in business, no?

324
00:31:01.760 --> 00:31:03.760
Yeah, that was a scary couple of hours.

325
00:31:03.760 --> 00:31:06.760
The suppliers of the illegal booze? Gangsters.

326
00:31:06.760 --> 00:31:09.760
Running from Lowe to Smuggy Hooch on the way from Shelbyville.

327
00:31:09.760 --> 00:31:11.760
And John Lowe was helpless.

328
00:31:11.760 --> 00:31:13.760
You didn't say nothing.

329
00:31:13.760 --> 00:31:16.760
I don't know why people are always bad-mouthing the mafia.

330
00:31:25.760 --> 00:31:37.760
Oh, jeez, this looks bad. Better turn on the all-Wiggum charm.

331
00:31:37.760 --> 00:31:41.760
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

332
00:31:41.760 --> 00:31:43.760
Pervert!

333
00:31:43.760 --> 00:31:45.760
Oh boy, that sounded bad.

334
00:31:45.760 --> 00:31:49.760
We demand you bring in a police chief who will enforce the prohibition law.

335
00:31:49.760 --> 00:31:53.760
Demand? Who are you to demand anything? I run this town.

336
00:31:53.760 --> 00:31:56.760
Down, you're just a bunch of low-income nobodies.

337
00:31:56.760 --> 00:31:59.760
Uh, election in November, election in November.

338
00:31:59.760 --> 00:32:02.760
What? Again? This stupid country.

339
00:32:02.760 --> 00:32:09.760
With rum-winning hoodlums in the catbird seat, Springfield sent for the one man who could clean up the town and shoot the gangsters, Rex Benner.

340
00:32:23.760 --> 00:32:32.760
Hey, I was watching that. And I was sitting there.

341
00:32:32.760 --> 00:32:37.760
Rex Banner, I'm running this department now. Wiggum, you're out. Suspended, indefinitely.

342
00:32:37.760 --> 00:32:39.760
Huh?

343
00:32:39.760 --> 00:32:45.760
Tuck in that shirt. Get those shoes shined. Take that badge out of your mouth. You're police officers.

344
00:32:45.760 --> 00:32:48.760
Well, what are you waiting for? Somebody to kiss you goodbye?

345
00:32:48.760 --> 00:32:52.760
Well, no, no, no, I guess not.

346
00:32:53.760 --> 00:33:01.760
Wasting no time, Rex Banner tore into the bootleggers like a chippy tearing into a lobster.

347
00:33:09.760 --> 00:33:13.760
How do you know you don't like bribes if you've never taken one? Here.

348
00:33:13.760 --> 00:33:18.760
Say, this is nice. No, no bribes!

349
00:33:18.760 --> 00:33:22.760
Okay, you win. From now on, we'll stick to smuggling heroin.

350
00:33:22.760 --> 00:33:24.760
See that you do!

351
00:33:24.760 --> 00:33:27.760
At first I thought prohibition was a good thing.

352
00:33:27.760 --> 00:33:30.760
People were drinking more and having a lot more fun.

353
00:33:30.760 --> 00:33:33.760
But without beer, prohibition doesn't work.

354
00:33:33.760 --> 00:33:36.760
Hey, hi, can I arrest any of you people for anything?

355
00:33:36.760 --> 00:33:37.760
No.

356
00:33:37.760 --> 00:33:38.760
This is the transformation here.

357
00:33:38.760 --> 00:33:40.760
Geez, I don't have anything to do anymore

358
00:33:40.760 --> 00:33:44.760
with banter around alcohol and crime or history in this town.

359
00:33:44.760 --> 00:33:45.760
And so am I.

360
00:33:45.760 --> 00:33:47.760
Now don't say that.

361
00:33:47.760 --> 00:33:49.760
Alcohol is a way of life.

362
00:33:49.760 --> 00:33:53.320
All is my way of life, and I aim to keep it.

363
00:33:53.320 --> 00:33:55.480
Sounds like you have a plan.

364
00:33:55.480 --> 00:33:57.640
Maybe I do, Chief.

365
00:33:57.640 --> 00:34:00.840
Maybe I do.

366
00:34:00.840 --> 00:34:02.840
Come on, boys, think of a plan.

367
00:34:02.840 --> 00:34:04.280
I'm trying, Dad.

368
00:34:04.280 --> 00:34:07.920
Kent Frackman at the now-closed Duff Bottling Plant,

369
00:34:07.920 --> 00:34:11.680
where a mysterious person in black keeps a solitary vigil.

370
00:34:11.680 --> 00:34:12.720
Err.

371
00:34:12.720 --> 00:34:13.800
I've got it.

372
00:34:13.800 --> 00:34:15.080
We're going out, Marge.

373
00:34:15.080 --> 00:34:17.120
If we don't come back, avenge our deaths.

374
00:34:17.120 --> 00:34:18.040
All right.

375
00:34:19.760 --> 00:34:23.760
Whoa, bonanza! Let's load it up before the rats regroup.

376
00:34:23.760 --> 00:34:26.760
Right, now remember, don't mention this to anyone.

377
00:34:26.760 --> 00:34:30.760
Not your mother, not Rex Banner, not anyone.

378
00:34:39.760 --> 00:34:42.760
Heh, Rex Banner, what a dope.

379
00:34:42.760 --> 00:34:45.760
Yeah, look at him try to aim that stupid gun.

380
00:34:49.760 --> 00:34:50.960
Hang on, son!

381
00:34:54.920 --> 00:34:57.600
Dad, knocking over gravestone is bad luck.

382
00:34:57.680 --> 00:34:59.440
Really? I heard good.

383
00:35:01.360 --> 00:35:05.280
You'll see how this experience changes Homer and Marge.

384
00:35:06.400 --> 00:35:08.480
What happened to you, Homer?

385
00:35:08.560 --> 00:35:10.600
And what have you done to the car?

386
00:35:11.040 --> 00:35:11.720
Nothing.

387
00:35:11.800 --> 00:35:14.200
I don't think it had broken axles before.

388
00:35:14.280 --> 00:35:17.240
Before, before. You're living in the past, Marge.

389
00:35:17.320 --> 00:35:18.720
Quit living in the past.

390
00:35:19.760 --> 00:35:25.760
That's funny. I used to be able to go down there.

391
00:35:25.760 --> 00:35:33.760
There's going to be a couple of steps here, but basically they're showing how Homer uses

392
00:35:33.760 --> 00:35:38.760
clever, sophisticated techniques to try to cover up his new business.

393
00:35:38.760 --> 00:35:43.760
Going bowling, not back events stats.

394
00:35:43.760 --> 00:35:45.760
Why do you have so many bowling balls?

395
00:35:45.760 --> 00:35:51.760
Oh, I'm not going to lie to you, Marge. So long.

396
00:36:01.760 --> 00:36:04.760
Oh, rats, another gutter ball.

397
00:36:04.760 --> 00:36:06.760
Gee, Homer, you sure do suck tonight.

398
00:36:06.760 --> 00:36:08.760
Yeah, suck like a fox.

399
00:36:15.760 --> 00:36:31.560
Here you go, Bond. That'll be 45 bucks.

400
00:36:31.560 --> 00:36:38.760
45 bucks? Well, this better be the best tasting beer in the world.

401
00:36:38.760 --> 00:36:39.760
You got lucky.

402
00:36:39.760 --> 00:36:51.960
You see, boy, the real money's in bootlegging, not in your childish vandalism.

403
00:36:51.960 --> 00:36:54.760
Oh, so many wasted nights.

404
00:36:54.760 --> 00:36:57.760
What's the matter, Chief?

405
00:36:57.760 --> 00:37:00.760
Yeah, you barely touched your banana kaboom.

406
00:37:00.760 --> 00:37:04.760
This isn't a very happy birthday for Rex Banner.

407
00:37:04.760 --> 00:37:10.760
And that's the way they play it.

408
00:37:13.760 --> 00:37:15.760
Hello, fishies.

409
00:37:18.760 --> 00:37:20.760
Listen, Rummy, I'm going to say it plain and simple.

410
00:37:20.760 --> 00:37:21.760
Where'd you pinch the hooch?

411
00:37:21.760 --> 00:37:24.760
Is some blind tiger jerking suds on the side?

412
00:37:25.760 --> 00:37:26.760
Yes.

413
00:37:27.760 --> 00:37:28.760
Wait a minute.

414
00:37:28.760 --> 00:37:30.760
I forgot to make sure the coast was clear.

415
00:37:31.760 --> 00:37:33.760
That's probably clear. Let's go.

416
00:37:34.760 --> 00:37:36.760
Beer!

417
00:37:36.760 --> 00:37:39.760
I can explain, Marge. Please let me explain.

418
00:37:39.760 --> 00:37:42.760
Oh, why won't you let me explain?

419
00:37:42.760 --> 00:37:44.760
You're the one the papers have been talking about.

420
00:37:44.760 --> 00:37:48.760
That mysterious beer baron who's been supplying Springfield with alcohol.

421
00:37:48.760 --> 00:37:50.760
How have you been getting away with this?

422
00:37:50.760 --> 00:37:52.760
Well, and I can explain, remember.

423
00:37:52.760 --> 00:37:55.760
I fill the balls with beer that I found at the dump

424
00:37:55.760 --> 00:37:58.760
and then I bowl them and some underground pipes take them into mows.

425
00:37:58.760 --> 00:38:01.760
Homer, that's very clever.

426
00:38:01.760 --> 00:38:02.760
Huh?

427
00:38:02.760 --> 00:38:03.760
Mom?

428
00:38:03.760 --> 00:38:07.760
Yes, I've known your father since high school, and this is the cleverest thing he's ever done.

429
00:38:07.760 --> 00:38:10.760
Besides, he's only breaking the silly 200-year-old law.

430
00:38:10.760 --> 00:38:13.760
It is silly, Marge. And look at all the money I'm making.

431
00:38:13.760 --> 00:38:14.760
Ooh.

432
00:38:14.760 --> 00:38:19.760
Mom, prohibition may be unpopular, but it's the law, and we still have...

433
00:38:19.760 --> 00:38:21.760
Go to your room, Lisa.

434
00:38:21.760 --> 00:38:28.760
See how it's changed Marge, too. This is the most clever thing that Homer's ever done,

435
00:38:28.760 --> 00:38:34.760
This is another example of Rex Banner not being very effective.

436
00:38:34.760 --> 00:38:40.760
They're going to show how the speak-easy works if cops come.

437
00:38:40.760 --> 00:38:46.760
Some of the features, like a locked door where you have to slip in and out of the door.

438
00:38:46.760 --> 00:38:50.760
They're going to show how the speak-easy works if cops come.

439
00:38:50.760 --> 00:38:54.760
They're going to show how the speak-easy works if cops come.

440
00:38:54.760 --> 00:39:03.260
Some of the features like a locked door where you have to slide it open and see the person and use special passwords to get in.

441
00:39:03.260 --> 00:39:11.760
There was actually a place like this in my hometown where they sold illegal alcohol and had an illegal casino.

442
00:39:11.760 --> 00:39:16.760
And when the cops came, there was a long road before you got to this restaurant.

443
00:39:16.760 --> 00:39:23.760
And so they could see the cops coming and they had all these devices so that it might look like you're playing a slot machine,

444
00:39:23.760 --> 00:39:28.760
that they could actually turn the whole thing around and the slot machine would go behind

445
00:39:28.760 --> 00:39:31.760
a hidden wall and they had all sorts of things like that in there.

446
00:39:33.760 --> 00:39:38.760
Open up, Curly. This is a raid.

447
00:39:38.760 --> 00:39:51.760
A raid? Curly? Um, all right, but I don't know what you expect to find in a simple neighborhood pet shop.

448
00:39:53.760 --> 00:40:03.040
Pet Shop, eh? Well, I just have one question. What kind of pet shop is filled with rambunctious

449
00:40:03.040 --> 00:40:05.960
yahoos and hot jazz music at 1 a.m.?

450
00:40:05.960 --> 00:40:12.960
Um, uh, the best damn pet shop in town!

451
00:40:12.960 --> 00:40:13.960
Yeah!

452
00:40:13.960 --> 00:40:20.540
All right, you people remember. Baby turtles and alligators may seem like a cute idea for

453
00:40:20.540 --> 00:40:23.240
They're a pet, but they grow up.

454
00:40:23.240 --> 00:40:24.240
Let's go, boys.

455
00:40:30.240 --> 00:40:34.240
Wow! Those gears down there really hurt.

456
00:40:38.240 --> 00:40:43.240
You're out there somewhere, beer baron, and I'll find you.

457
00:40:43.240 --> 00:40:45.240
No, you won't.

458
00:40:45.240 --> 00:40:47.240
Yes, I will.

459
00:40:47.240 --> 00:40:49.240
Won't.

460
00:40:50.540 --> 00:40:55.540
Dinkline, Springfield, the elusive beer baron continued to thumb his nose at authorities.

461
00:40:55.540 --> 00:40:58.540
Swaggering about in a garish new hat, he seemed to say,

462
00:40:58.540 --> 00:41:00.540
Look at me, Rex Benner, I have a new hat.

463
00:41:02.540 --> 00:41:05.540
Hey, boy, get cracking. Mow up disorder to 20 balls a night.

464
00:41:05.540 --> 00:41:06.540
Uh, Dad.

465
00:41:06.540 --> 00:41:08.540
Call me Beer Baron.

466
00:41:08.540 --> 00:41:11.540
All the beer from the landfill is gone, Beer Baron. We're out of business.

467
00:41:13.540 --> 00:41:16.540
But I can't be out of beer. I'm the Beer Baron.

468
00:41:16.540 --> 00:41:39.100
So this is his second idea.

469
00:41:39.100 --> 00:41:44.060
The first one was to use the existing beer that was in the dump, and now he's got the

470
00:41:44.060 --> 00:41:50.060
My second idea implanted in his head is that he's going to make stuff and we'll see exactly what he's going to make.

471
00:41:52.060 --> 00:41:54.060
Forty-two bathtubs, please.

472
00:41:54.060 --> 00:41:56.060
You know, they're fifty for three thousand dollars today.

473
00:41:56.060 --> 00:41:58.060
I said forty-two.

474
00:42:04.060 --> 00:42:09.060
Now you're making your own alcohol? That's even more illegal than what you were doing before.

475
00:42:09.060 --> 00:42:13.060
Remember, honey, we're disobeying an unjust law here.

476
00:42:13.060 --> 00:42:17.060
We're patriots, like all those people in jail.

477
00:42:27.060 --> 00:42:29.060
Who wants a bathtub mint julep?

478
00:42:36.060 --> 00:42:37.060
Are you the beer baron?

479
00:42:37.060 --> 00:42:42.060
Well, if you're talking about root beer, I plead guilt-diddly-ilty as char-diddly-arged.

480
00:42:42.060 --> 00:42:45.060
He's not the Baron, but he sounds drunk. Take him in.

481
00:42:47.060 --> 00:42:48.060
Are you the beer baron?

482
00:42:48.060 --> 00:42:54.060
Yes, but only by night. By day, I'm a mild-mannered reporter for a major metropolitan newspaper.

483
00:42:54.060 --> 00:42:56.060
Don't crack wise with me, tubby.

484
00:42:56.060 --> 00:42:58.060
Tubby? Oh, yes, tubby.

485
00:42:59.060 --> 00:43:01.060
Hey, Fander, how's it hanging?

486
00:43:01.060 --> 00:43:02.060
None of your business.

487
00:43:07.060 --> 00:43:13.860
What on earth happened down there?

488
00:43:13.860 --> 00:43:14.860
One of the stills-

489
00:43:14.860 --> 00:43:15.860
Nothing, March.

490
00:43:15.860 --> 00:43:21.140
I think it must have been that bean I had for dinner.

491
00:43:21.140 --> 00:43:25.260
So all this stuff is representative of bathtub gin.

492
00:43:25.260 --> 00:43:28.500
Notice that almost all of it is whiskey of one sort or another.

493
00:43:28.500 --> 00:43:35.260
It's being made, obviously, very crudely, and stills blowing up was a big problem if

494
00:43:35.260 --> 00:43:44.780
If you're making amateur stills to condense the alcohol, you've got a heat source, basically

495
00:43:44.780 --> 00:43:51.220
cooking a very flammable substance, and if the still itself is not made professionally

496
00:43:51.220 --> 00:43:57.380
with high gauge copper and welding and so forth, they're very likely to blow up.

497
00:43:57.380 --> 00:43:59.380
So a very dangerous thing.

498
00:43:59.380 --> 00:44:06.380
Kaboom! Blammo! Excuse me again, dear.

499
00:44:06.380 --> 00:44:12.380
Homer, there's no point in pretending you're making those noises. Your homemade liquor is exploding again.

500
00:44:12.380 --> 00:44:14.380
What, dear? Kablammo!

501
00:44:14.380 --> 00:44:20.380
You made some money and had the fun of being a wanted criminal. Why not quit now, while you're ahead?

502
00:44:20.380 --> 00:44:22.380
Boom.

503
00:44:24.380 --> 00:44:26.380
I'll be right back.

504
00:44:29.380 --> 00:44:51.380
I thought about what you said, honey. And I've decided to quit. Oh well, fun's over, but I still have my wonderful money.

505
00:44:51.380 --> 00:44:52.380
Here comes his third idea.

506
00:44:52.380 --> 00:44:54.380
Geez, what happened to you, Wiggum? You look terrible.

507
00:44:54.380 --> 00:44:57.380
Yeah, never mind how I look. You gonna give me the money or not?

508
00:44:57.380 --> 00:45:00.380
Well, I don't think so. You don't even have a trigger on that thing.

509
00:45:00.380 --> 00:45:04.380
Yeah, to sell the trigger. Most of the handle to feed my family.

510
00:45:04.380 --> 00:45:08.380
Come on, give me the dough. I can throw this pretty hard.

511
00:45:08.380 --> 00:45:11.380
Poor Wigam. Poor Wigam.

512
00:45:11.380 --> 00:45:14.380
I'll bet you really hate Rex Banner, huh? Um, who?

513
00:45:14.380 --> 00:45:19.380
The guy who took your job. Oh, yeah. More than anything in the world.

514
00:45:19.380 --> 00:45:24.380
Hey, how would you like to show him up by beating him at his own game?

515
00:45:24.380 --> 00:45:33.320
I'm happy to report that the flow of illegal liquor seems to have dried up. Public drunkenness

516
00:45:33.320 --> 00:45:38.920
has ceased and those mysterious liquor clouds over Evergreen Terrace are gone. People, Rex

517
00:45:38.920 --> 00:45:46.020
Banner has won your war against alcohol. What about the beer barrel? I suspect he was just

518
00:45:46.020 --> 00:45:50.500
an invention of the media. The idea that someone like that could operate under my varying nose

519
00:45:50.500 --> 00:46:03.460
We now go live to Evergreen Terrace, where I'm informed that former police chief Wiggum

520
00:46:03.460 --> 00:46:05.580
has captured the beer baron.

521
00:46:05.580 --> 00:46:08.100
The captured Homer?

522
00:46:08.100 --> 00:46:14.140
Then the liquor-filled bowling balls traveled through a network of underground pipes, finally

523
00:46:14.140 --> 00:46:17.100
emerging at a nearby speakeasy.

524
00:46:17.100 --> 00:46:18.780
You forgot one thing, Wiggum.

525
00:46:18.780 --> 00:46:19.940
Yeah, what's that?

526
00:46:19.940 --> 00:46:26.900
I filled the balls with a funnel. That was a very sweet thing you did for poor Wiggum.

527
00:46:26.900 --> 00:46:32.020
But what's going to happen to you? Oh, probably just a slap on the wrist.

528
00:46:32.020 --> 00:46:41.100
Okay, so now Homer's in for his punishment. And there's two important speeches here. Marge

529
00:46:41.100 --> 00:46:47.380
has a speech where she makes the plea against prohibition and punishing Homer based on a

530
00:46:47.380 --> 00:46:52.380
and the loss that prohibition causes a loss of liberty and freedom.

531
00:46:52.380 --> 00:46:59.620
And then at the very end of the episode, Homer makes a short speech where he puts the whole

532
00:46:59.620 --> 00:47:07.300
thing in perspective, alcohol use and abuse and some of the social problems that are associated

533
00:47:07.300 --> 00:47:13.940
with that and comparing those to the experience that they've had with prohibition.

534
00:47:13.940 --> 00:47:23.940
I think what he says puts that whole, those issues into context, into the proper context, actually.

535
00:47:24.940 --> 00:47:29.940
And he who shall violate this law shall be punished by catapult.

536
00:47:30.940 --> 00:47:32.940
Last time I helped you.

537
00:47:32.940 --> 00:47:36.940
Sorry, I thought you'd get a fine, or at most three, four years in jail.

538
00:47:36.940 --> 00:47:41.940
Hold it! This machine is two centuries old. Better test it first.

539
00:47:41.940 --> 00:47:42.780
Hello.

540
00:47:46.660 --> 00:47:47.900
Okay, go ahead.

541
00:47:47.900 --> 00:47:50.780
Wait, wait, you can't do this.

542
00:47:50.780 --> 00:47:54.500
All my husband did was violate a law that doesn't make sense.

543
00:47:54.500 --> 00:47:57.100
Now, I'll admit, car crashes and fist fights

544
00:47:57.100 --> 00:47:58.860
have been down recently,

545
00:47:58.860 --> 00:48:01.940
but prohibition has cost us our freedom.

546
00:48:01.940 --> 00:48:03.700
Our freedom to drink.

547
00:48:03.700 --> 00:48:04.740
No!

548
00:48:04.740 --> 00:48:06.460
Now, hold on a minute, Missy.

549
00:48:06.460 --> 00:48:09.140
It's not up to us to choose which laws we want to obey.

550
00:48:09.140 --> 00:48:12.420
If it were, I'd kill everyone who looked at me cock-eyed.

551
00:48:12.420 --> 00:48:14.940
Our laws are in place for a reason.

552
00:48:14.940 --> 00:48:16.740
Send him back to mama, boys.

553
00:48:20.740 --> 00:48:22.420
That was unexpected.

554
00:48:22.420 --> 00:48:26.340
Well, reset the catapult and let's get this over with.

555
00:48:26.340 --> 00:48:27.540
Wait!

556
00:48:27.540 --> 00:48:30.820
I've discovered more lines on the parchment.

557
00:48:30.820 --> 00:48:35.740
It says that the prohibition law, which was passed here 200 years ago,

558
00:48:35.740 --> 00:48:38.740
was repealed 199 years ago.

559
00:48:39.620 --> 00:48:41.060
Release the prisoner.

560
00:48:43.900 --> 00:48:46.580
On behalf of the city, I'd like to apologize

561
00:48:46.580 --> 00:48:48.220
and ask how long it will take for you

562
00:48:48.220 --> 00:48:50.500
to flood this town with booze again.

563
00:48:50.500 --> 00:48:52.500
Well, sorry.

564
00:48:52.500 --> 00:48:54.980
I'm not in that business anymore.

565
00:48:54.980 --> 00:48:56.980
Four minutes.

566
00:48:56.980 --> 00:48:59.380
And so, one town's brief flirtation with Prohibition

567
00:48:59.380 --> 00:49:02.060
ended in a joyous remarriage to Lady Liquor.

568
00:49:02.060 --> 00:49:04.180
Congratulations, Springfield.

569
00:49:04.180 --> 00:49:13.180
We wish you the very best to alcohol, the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems.

570
00:49:13.180 --> 00:49:19.180
That's it.

571
00:49:19.180 --> 00:49:33.180
So they had to take a few shortcuts with the...

572
00:49:33.180 --> 00:49:39.020
You know, with the establishment of prohibition and the ending of it, things of that nature,

573
00:49:39.020 --> 00:49:46.460
but I think they really covered the reality for us, the prohibition that we can't see.

574
00:49:46.460 --> 00:49:48.380
You know, we know there's a war on drugs out there.

575
00:49:48.380 --> 00:49:53.260
We see somebody getting arrested in Lee County every month or so, or whatever it happens

576
00:49:53.260 --> 00:50:00.580
to be, but because it's secretive, very little of it actually leaks out into our lives.

577
00:50:00.580 --> 00:50:06.600
You know, there probably are a hundred or so people selling illegal drugs in Lee County.

578
00:50:06.600 --> 00:50:12.060
There are probably people in Lee County who are making methamphetamines and growing pot.

579
00:50:12.060 --> 00:50:17.700
There are thousands of people who are consuming illegal drugs, given that Auburn University

580
00:50:17.700 --> 00:50:20.720
is here.

581
00:50:20.720 --> 00:50:24.300
But it's all underground.

582
00:50:24.300 --> 00:50:26.020
And so we don't see it.

583
00:50:26.020 --> 00:50:33.260
We don't get a catalog listing of all of the negative effects of families being broken

584
00:50:33.260 --> 00:50:40.540
up and breadwinners being thrown in jail, medical patients going without something that

585
00:50:40.540 --> 00:50:44.980
might be able to help them through their illnesses and conditions.

586
00:50:44.980 --> 00:50:52.780
All of that is not highly visualized in our world here in rural Alabama.

587
00:50:52.780 --> 00:51:02.820
But I think that this episode and my analysis of it is that it's a very accurate description

588
00:51:02.820 --> 00:51:11.500
of what's actually going on behind these closed areas that we don't see on a regular basis.

589
00:51:11.500 --> 00:51:17.780
And it's certainly an accurate description, however short it happens to be, of what happened

590
00:51:17.780 --> 00:51:23.260
during Alcohol Prohibition in this country during the 1920s.

591
00:51:23.260 --> 00:51:28.340
So if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them, but that's the basic end

592
00:51:28.340 --> 00:51:29.340
of the show.

593
00:51:29.340 --> 00:51:30.340
Okay?

594
00:51:30.340 --> 00:51:31.340
Thank you very much.

595
00:51:31.340 --> 00:51:32.340
Sure.

596
00:51:32.340 --> 00:51:40.500
I wonder if you could talk a little bit about the difference between outside of the football

597
00:51:40.500 --> 00:51:46.100
stadium and inside the football stadium and how the types of prohibited substances are

598
00:51:46.100 --> 00:51:47.100
played.

599
00:51:47.100 --> 00:51:52.700
Yeah, well that's actually an example where you can actually see it on a regular basis,

600
00:51:52.700 --> 00:52:01.520
the impact of prohibition, the fact that the football stadium, alcohol is prohibited.

601
00:52:01.520 --> 00:52:09.600
And so if you were at the game and did tailgating last Saturday for the football game, what

602
00:52:09.600 --> 00:52:14.860
you'll see is tens of thousands of people around the stadium and a good percentage of

603
00:52:44.860 --> 00:52:49.500
Inside the stadium where it's illegal, what you're going to find is they're typically

604
00:52:49.500 --> 00:52:59.600
drinking double-proof rum, Everclear, which is 160-proof, I guess it is, and all sorts

605
00:52:59.600 --> 00:53:07.060
of regular whiskeys as well, brandy, whiskey, but in particular the double-proof versions

606
00:53:07.060 --> 00:53:08.060
of all of them.

607
00:53:08.060 --> 00:53:17.220
The reason is because that prohibition encourages people to consume the most concentrated and

608
00:53:17.220 --> 00:53:24.460
potent forms of alcohol that they can get their hands on because that limits the authority's

609
00:53:24.460 --> 00:53:30.980
ability to capture you and to prevent you from bringing alcohol into the stadium.

610
00:53:30.980 --> 00:53:37.700
So you see very few people attempting to bring cans or bottles of beer into the stadium.

611
00:53:37.700 --> 00:53:48.660
There is a story that dates back into like the 1980s, I think, that a fraternity actually

612
00:53:48.660 --> 00:53:56.620
successfully got a keg into the game but no one has been able to verify that story.

613
00:53:56.620 --> 00:54:04.980
And I haven't seen beer inside the stadium, outside of the boxes, there's plenty of booze

614
00:54:04.980 --> 00:54:08.100
is up there.

615
00:54:08.100 --> 00:54:16.220
So that does give you a visual example of one aspect of what happens during prohibition.

616
00:54:16.220 --> 00:54:24.500
But the type of alcohol that they bring in, at least it doesn't have any poisons and

617
00:54:24.500 --> 00:54:27.560
adulterants in it, it's standard liquor.

618
00:54:27.560 --> 00:54:33.700
But as a consequence, you've got basically people who aren't used to drinking liquor,

619
00:54:33.700 --> 00:54:38.720
who are used to drinking beer, they're drinking liquor, and there is a tendency for a few

620
00:54:38.720 --> 00:54:48.720
people to get drunk at the game, I mean more so than they otherwise would be, accidentally

621
00:54:48.720 --> 00:54:49.720
drunk.

622
00:54:49.720 --> 00:54:51.420
Okay, thank you very much.

623
00:55:03.700 --> 00:55:05.700
Thank you for watching.