| “ | Are you the Beer Baron? | „ |
| ~ Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment |
Rex Hugh Banner is the main antagonist in the episode "Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment". He is a U.S. Treasury officer in Washington, D.C. who was briefly sent to Springfield to uphold Prohibition in Springfield after Bart got drunk in a live news report, which incited several women to force the city government to declare Prohibition.
History[]
He replaced Clancy Wiggum as Chief of Police and made a main objective to capturing the "Beer Baron", a rumrunner who was actually Homer. He also tried interrogating people in regard to who is supplying rum on the side, but his choice of words for his interrogation (Listen, rummy, I'm gonna say it plain and simple. Where'd you pinch the hooch? Is some blind tiger jerking suds on the side?) left one of his interrogatees, Barney Gumble, confused and could only reply with an unsure "Yes?". Also, despite being more competent than Wiggum, Banner seems to be somewhat corrupt, as he allowed Fat Tony to smuggle heroin after refusing to take any bribes to smuggle alcohol to Springfield only focusing on their alcohol smuggling. When Homer was finally turned in by Wiggum, Rex was fired, both from his job as chief, and from the main mechanism of punishment for breaking the ancient prohibition law: catapult. [1] Despite this, he apparently survived, as he later participated in the mob against Homer Simpson.[2]
Though a very clean cut, non-nonsense officer, he is as effective as Wiggum as police chief beyond him being more ruthless in ensuring prohibition was enforced. Banner was never able to identify Homer as the "Beer Baron," even with overwhelming evidence and Homer's general sloppiness in covering his own tracks, arresting Ned Flanders for being drunk only based on the way he sounds without conducting sobriety tests, stopping the import of beer by building a wall on the road to Springfield, causing several car crashes, and believing the Beer Baron was an invention of the media only because he didn't catch him.
He apparently maintained contact with his mother via telegram, as a telegram sent to him from his mom, received just shortly after Quimby's telegram requesting his immediate assistance had her tell him that her dog Daisy had just given birth to a litter of puppies.
Tapped Out
Behind the Laughter[]
Rex Banner was based on Eliot Ness, the Treasury agent who led the famous Prohibition-enforcement team "The Untouchables". His voice is based on Robert Stack's portrayal of Ness in the Untouchables TV series, while his appearance is based on Kevin Costner's portrayal of Ness in the Untouchables film.
Appearances[]
Episode – "Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment" - Episode – "Bart's Birthday" (cameo)
– The Simpsons Movie (Cameo)- Video game – The Simpsons: Tapped Out
