Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment (S08, E18-171)

"To alcohol!  The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems."

Plot Summary
After a rather riotous St. Patrick's Day party that abruptly ends when Bart accidentally drinks a load of beer, getting drunk off his ass, the goody-two-shoes of the town demand Springfield undergo prohibition.  Just then, the town cleric dusts off a scroll which states that Springfield in fact passed a prohibition law 200 years ago (under punishment of catapult), and as such would still be in effect today.  Thus, much to the shock of boozehounds throughout town, Springfield becomes dry.

The new law seems devastating at first, as Duff beer is forced to close down after a failed attempt at selling non-alcoholic beer.  However, the heroes of the mafia quickly resupply Moe's with booze, easily bribing the police to stay inactive, and everything is okay.  The goody-two-shoes quickly catch wind, and after seeing Chief Wiggum having fun at Moe's, they force Mayor Quimby's hand.  He brings in Rex Banner, some kind of serious type who takes over Wiggum's position and quickly stops the beer bootlegging.

Now with prohibition actually being enforced, Homer tries to come up with a plan, when a TV report reminds him that there's a landfill of beer that was placed there following the enactment of prohibition.  He and Bart dig it up and evade the police, setting up their bootlegging business.  As Banner struggles to find out who this new "Beer Baron" is, Homer is making good money from his shady work, even impressing Marge.

However, soon Homer runs out of landfill beer, but gets an idea from Moe to make booze from scratch.  The business stays afloat for awhile, but making alcohol from scratch is more difficult than it seems, and after a few explosions Homer decides to quit while he's ahead.  A short time later, he sees Wiggum in rags, his job essentially lost when Banner came in and being forced to sell parts of his gun to feed his family.  Homer decides to help Wiggum out by letting him beat Banner at his own game.

The word quickly spreads that Wiggum "caught" the Beer Baron, and has his job reinstated, I guess.  Though Homer is happy to of helped Wiggum, it seems he was unaware of the punishment for violating prohibition.  Just before Homer is to be catapulted away, Marge makes a plea to end prohibition.  Banner tries to persuade in favor of following laws, he inadvertently enters the catapult, giving Wiggum the chance to fling him away.  A moment later, that town clerk reveals that, on the same scroll, the 200 year old prohibition law was repealed just one year later.  With the town officially wet again, Homer is freed and the mafia quickly resupply the town with the booze it oh so loves.

Quick Review
This was an enjoyable episode, watching Homer deal with prohibition and the whole "Beer Baron" scheme was well done, and having a competent man like Rex Banner be tasked with keeping the law going was a good choice as well.  A beer-focused episode allows characters like Moe and especially Barney to shine, and shine they did here.  In all, its one of Season 8's better episodes.

Final Score: 9.4