Homer Simpson versus the 18th Amendment By: Cam Hall

Part 1:     In my opinion, the producers of the Simpsons did a pretty fair job in portraying the 1920s/Prohibition in Springfield. My opinion is based on the fact that to me many elements from the 1920s/Prohibition era were portayed very well. These elements included the use of speakeasies to secretly give out alcohol to the people and provide hangouts for the people against the Prohibition. Moe's Pet Store was a speakeasy in disguise as portrayed in the episode. Another element was the riots and fighting that broke out between the people in Springfield. These people were fighting over the use of alcohol in the town, just like the people did in the U.S. in the 1920s. One other element was the fact that the police were involved with the drinking. Chief Wiggum was shown drunk in a speakeasy and the people who were wanting to bannish alcohol were completely disaprroving of this, just like in the 1920s. I feel as though the accuracies weighed about the same as the fictional comedy, because in the episode every accuracy had some comedic event that went along with it. For example, at the riot, a sample of an alcoholic beverage was swallowed by Bart, who then acted like he was drunk; this was a very funny scene. Overall and finally, I did enjoy watching the episode, with all its funny and realistic parts.

Part 2:     A scene that I would rewrite in the Simpsons episode, based on the idea of making it more realistic, it would be the scene where Homer and Bart were secretly sending alcoholic beverages to a speakeasy in bowling balls. In reality, people would never put alcohol in bowling balls to achieve this purpose in the 1920s. The way in which I would change this scene is that I would have Homer and Bart put the alcohol into some sort of holder/container that would be used in reality to carry out such a task. Some examples would be cups, jars, mugs, etc., each with a lid/cover on it to keep the alcohol sealed inside so that way it does not spill. This is really how people would send the alcoholic beverages around to other people in reality. In my opinion though, I still personally felt that this scene was good for the more comedic aspect of the episode. Overall and finally, I feel as though the producers of the Simpons did a very okay job on this epsiode in portraying the 1920s/Prohinition era in Springfield in the episode.