OverSimplified - Prohibition *ON THE BEER* REACTION!! | OFFICE BLOKES REACT!!

[Music] hi guys welcome to office blokes reacts on the beer yeah yeah i hope you're well indeed sponsored by stellar artwork yeah sponsored by all these things we wish uh feel free to pause the video go and crack a tinny open or get yourself a drink and then re-commence with them join us yeah with us we'll still be here we'll be here don't worry on the floor uh so we are the office boats and believe it or not we've got a patreon page absolutely going i've got patreon.com uh putting office bloats react i've got loads of tears starting at just 1.50 tons of content so if you want to support the channel like a lot of y'all have done already it's been fantastic it's not growing the content because yesterday was just loads and today's tons tons is more than loads how many how many loads in it on there's about 300 likes let's go check it out anyways that's pretty well have chairs lads yeah we've got a couple of other channels that are worth a go as well believe it hold on yeah we've got office blogs try where we do all different kinds of things and we're getting ready to go and try a lot of [ __ ] tonight yeah and uh yeah and then we've got office blogs podcasts where we do two podcasts a week one on a tuesday where mike and i talk premier league football and one on friday when we talk topical content and we might even have a special one bonus one coming this week hopefully a special bonus one special bonus for you yeah of course basketball oh nice nice i'm bringing a basketball specialist in spanish basketball yeah fair play right then well prohibition oversimplified this was heavily requested for absolutely ages we never got around to it because it's 33 minutes long it's a big in but we thought we're gonna save it till and on the beer hang on yeah i'm fine before we start i have definitely haven't got 33 minutes worth of beer there but i've got enough i've gotta make that last haven't i yeah pop it out in a second you can pop out the channel yep turn the camera off pop it out already get yourself a little desk you may uh you may be able to guess what our views on prohibits you know i know thankfully we didn't have it in this country because it would it would have burned the whole country down yeah it knocked whatever would but that apparently led to organized crime and the mafia and stuff i think he did in the u.s yeah so anyway uh let's get into it prohibition oversimplified mug of hard cider and a full bottle of wine oh boy oh i'm running late i'll have to take it with me don't forget your lunch it's a six pack of beer a flask of whiskey six shots of tequila and as a special treat a banana oh gee whiz i'm gonna be smashed today enjoy your day of operating sharp dangerous farm equipment i can't believe this is an acceptable way to live god bless america okay gotta go [Music] i love my life america the land of beautiful strip malls top class infrastructure and wonderful urban sprawl ah yes beautiful america but what's the most american thing you can think of the statue of liberty mount rushmore a crazy lady in a mobility scooter yelling at a pigeon what if i told you the answer is alcohol that's right when the puritans arrived on america's shores they brought a ship packed with beer george washington provided his men with a daily cup of whiskey andrew jackson's inauguration party left the white house so trashed that everybody had to be ordered outside frederick douglass said whiskey made him feel like a president me too frederick me too americans drink breakfast doctors prescribe their patients hard liquor in the 19th century americans drink three times as much as their modern day counter when you were kids right and you're ill did your parents give you liquor no no yours no yours no no no because they still had that cough syrup with opium in it when mike was a kid [Laughter] but my mum and dad used to give me um brandy and whiskey all right if it was ill all right yeah no i've never got anything like that well my mum and dad didn't really drink because the taxi business so we're driving all the time so never really had any booze with anything well when you're driving get away with it back then yeah it was in the uk years ago like way back when it was safer to drink the beer than it was to drink the water and there was low strength beers that servants in stately homes used to drink like a two percent beer all day every day instead of water because you can get all types of diseases off your water yeah i always remember when i went to germany talking this great stock on a beer because it's my you know it's my special subject that i'm football yeah right when i went to germany to see some of our customers there and i already might watch this but mark mark took me in we went to the yeah i think it was mercedes mercedes or porsche one of the factories one of the uh car manufacturers and we went in the cafe we've met the guy we were meeting it was about eight o'clock in the morning we went to the cafe in the like breakfast in the morning i'm gonna try and brought three beers over breakfast in the staff [Laughter] that's a lot of whiskey hey jerry how's that report coming along already done sir i've also organized your paperwork watered your flowers and been a father figure to your children wait a minute what's that smell have you been drinking at work no sir i would never well why not everyone else is doing it but i got all my work done you're fired americans drink at work they drink up barn raisins baptisms and public hangings heavy drinking was so normal that it was as american as apple pie hi everyone my name is ron and i'm an alcoholic get over yourself ron we're all alcoholics but more and more americans began to wonder whether all of this truly was a normal way to live where do you think you got it from america imported yeah were americans drinking perhaps a little too much well one group in particular thought the answer to that was yes you know him you love him woman oh crap woman hang on we just want to talk come on fred you've got two kids and a wife at home yet here you are spending your entire paycheck on booze and you doctors spanky you're on the cusp of discovering time travel but what did you discover instead the sweet sweet joys of whiskey that's right alcohol it's destroying our families our jobs and our homes hang on men don't let them get to you this saloon is our safe space where our wives and children can't annoy us with reality where we're free to be real men it's funny how it's gone the other way in that a few years ago they got rid of male only rooms in pubs which used to be the the safe space for guys i'm using that because because that's what he's just said but essentially they got rid of that at the same time they were introducing safe spaces for everyone so people are allowed to save space to segregate but not if it's the traditional safe space of a bloke sitting in a pub farting and swearing and stuff that doesn't want to be a pig if you know what i mean women are still frowned upon when they go in the vault over here although i don't think there's as many volts as it used to be is there i think so do you think i'm not so sure about i think a lot of vaults have gone through there's not as many because there's not as many pop-ups yeah yeah but he's still there's still quite a lot but women are frowned upon going in bottles you know what yeah that's probably the old man they just frown like what's she doing in here i think they should be allowed everywhere just as long as they don't touch the sneaker table when it's all right i'm joking what happens when the dancers come in dave and they're on the snooker table and like the fellas or the chip and i'm not sure which bad boozers you go in that's uh where you get fellas dancing on the snooker table i don't wanna don't know part of it tell you what you can get and what is it real men do take care of their families i don't know what she's talking about do you take care of your family no we drink beer we shoot guns and we mud wrestle as america's heavy drinking ruined more and more lives moral resistance began to arise and women were at the forefront taking matters into their own hands at a time when women doing just about anything was shocking that had enough of being victim to their husband's heavy drinking and they were gonna do something unprecedented you're going to what i'm going to protest oh sweetie woman can't protest [Applause] starting in ohio before spreading nationwide women began a crusade against alcohol they marched through towns and cities singing hymns gathering outside saloons and praying on their knees woman just let the women drink make it socially acceptable for the women to take part in the fun activity as well and then all this goes you know what happens when women drink though i don't know i'm saying from this one you know mike babies the barbell gets more expensive because he can't just have a beer that's true actually yeah was so terrifying that in some towns schools were shut and business stagnated on one occasion firemen were called out to hose down the dangerous praying woman on another the owner of a beer garden reportedly held a cannon outside and threatened to reduce the savage woman to dust nevertheless they persisted they formed the wctu in 1874 and they organized they set up homes for inebriate women they installed water fountains in public parks they wrote textbooks for school children that contain some interesting claims about drinking alcohol here's little timmy uh-oh looks like timmy's gonna have his first drink he's taking a small sip of whiskey and timmy has spontaneously combusted the woman's efforts weren't in vain in small towns across america drugstores agreed to stop fulfilling prescriptions for alcohol men committed themselves to giving up drink inspired by the woman's moral fervor some saloon owners closed their doors the woman's crusade the real protest was in the bedroom that's what this is all about they all just went i'm not [ __ ] until they stopped drinking when the guys lasted about a month and then entertained themselves for a month with a but then he went you know what and after prohibition came prostitution [Laughter] and other temperance movements were forcing people to reconsider alcohol's role in society and more people began to side with the growing temperance movement many states had even begun enacting their own dry laws that restricted the sale and use of alcohol one of them was kansas where alcohol had been outlawed since 1881. despite this many illegal saloons remained open and authorities had done just about nothing to stop them one woman disgusted by what she saw decided she would take the law into her own hands and not just any woman a terrifying hatchet-wielding sweet old lady named carrie nation armed with her trusty hatchet and a bag of what she called smashers she traveled from town to town visiting saloons but she wasn't there to get smashed she was there to smash the men could do nothing but coward as sweet little if you say caronation fast you've got karen in there somewhere yeah you know that's it's funny that there's an old lady with an axe though because when i was a kid my bro phone the police from the house phone and just handed it to me and there was a little old lady at the end of the street that couldn't hurt a fly and i told the police that she was running up and down the street with an axe dave so i was there i was there there were past life it was a flashback old lady was so bad did she go to jail yeah no they shot her no they phoned back and spoke to my parents and i got in a lot of trouble oh dear harry hooked out and tore the place to shreds she went to kiowa and smashy smashed wichita smashy smash smashy smash on a couple of occasions she was arrested but each time they were like okay carrie we're going to let you go so long as you promise to be a good girl and not smash up any more saloons okay screw you pig i think she's going to be right smash smash smash kerry's tactics shocked the other members of the women's christian temperance union but she assured them and this is a quote ladies you do not know how much joy you will have until you smash smash smash carrie became a household name and she hoped her unusual tactics would spread across the country but unfortunately many of the women's movements eventually slowed down why well because of this kind of thing thelma i ripped my pants again ugh well you'll have to sew them yourself because i'm going out protesting what i don't know how to sew what if i burn the house down and get eaten by alligators what don't be stupid mitch look i've gotta go call me stupid she's the one who's stupid while the women were out protesting there was nobody to do the cooking and cleaning and being seen and not heard and they gradually had to return to their duties at home but where the woman had got the men were too [ __ ] useless this is great absolutely the ball rolling a new movement was about to take that ball all the way to washington dc i'm talking about the anti-saloon league the anti-saloon league was a political pressure group run by a very sweet looking old man but don't let that deceive you this guy was an evil genius while the women's movements were interested in a whole range of issues wayne wheeler and the anti-saloon league only cared about enemy number one mr al cohol and as a result they were extremely effective they were able to exploit the fears of the american people and i mean everyone's fears here's how they did it hello sir welcome to the liberal progressive rally why don't you introduce yourself well i'm patty and i'm an immigrant from ireland and tell me paddy do you drink oh yes i drink a lot see folks people like patty come here looking for a better life only to end up drunk in the gutter don't worry sir we're gonna help you [Applause] hey man you're doing great i just need you for one more thing hey christian conservatives this is patty he's a dirty catholic irish immigrant who's come to destroy america with his alcohol fueled debauchery [Music] workers were told alcohol was a capitalist ploy to keep them subjugated factory owners were told alcohol was making their irresponsible workers lazy the black community was warned alcohol was hindering its progress while racists were warned alcohol would turn black men into brutes in one of the most confusing eras of american politics totally opposing groups found themselves agreeing on at least one thing alcohol was bad the anti-slingly also made great use of propaganda something prohibitionists have been doing for decades take this specimen for example that once what will happen to you if you start drinking let's see first you take a drink you get a little rowdy okay you make some new friends nice then you become homeless you turn to crime and oh but the most that's just one night out though and then you wake up the next day and you're all right and then do it all again carry on again yeah if you get to step six you don't think well yeah you grow back you'd be fine effective tactic wheeler used to force prohibition on america was pressure politics in any election he could wheeler very successfully rounded up support against any politician who was in favor of alcohol in ohio alone he had 70 state representatives and the popular republican governor ousted from office and replaced with prohibitionists suddenly every politician in america was afraid of wayne wheeler even those who enjoyed alcohol in private began pretending to be against it in public alcohol is delicious i mean malicious sorry wayne i'm really drunk right now then it really hit the fan in 1917 when america found itself fighting in the first world war against germany anti-german sentiment exploded sauerkraut became liberty cabbage german measles became liberty measles and dachshunds became the embodiment of evil see america you've always been this way the biggest brewers in america were german and wheeler saw to it that drinking alcohol became akin to pro-german treason the german brewers desperately tried to fight back creating their own propaganda presenting beers a healthy beverage one that you could even give to your kids as you can imagine it didn't go down well president wilson instituted something that's only carlin though that's not spirits that's not whiskey and brandon exactly yeah carl in for kids but anything i had anything i had wrong with me if i had two take give him a whiskey mom used to give me whiskey she had to take every day yeah but it kind of moved on as we got a bit older it moved on to what they call the hot toddy yeah brandy water and lemon yeah yeah i have hot toddies quite frequently to be fair but with brandy's not wasted yeah brandy yeah honey lemon hot water i put turmeric in mine as well healthy i'm wondering what age i'm used to i think my mum used to rub our colony gums when i was a baby to get rid of the teething yeah oh yeah yeah i've heard of that to be fair prairie wartime prohibition measures to save grain for food and with many in the country now in support of prohibition all that was left was to make it law one problem was that taxes on alcohol made up nearly 40 percent of the us government's annual revenue and the government wasn't just about to give that up no problem the anti-saloon league helped lobby for the creation of a new income tax on the american people and just like that the government was no longer reliant on alcohol prohibition was finally introduced to congress in 1913 not just as a law but a constitutional amendment you know what i've just got wow i did dry january and then got covered america did a dry few years and then got the spanish flu don't don't do dry january no i won't in america don't ban it again because you'll end up with another pandemic yeah kovi 20 yeah because spanish flu started in america believe all that oh did it yeah i thought so he lived on a military base in america 1917 as the house held their final vote on the prohibition amendment wheeler was watching from the gallery you spineless cowards i know half of you drink yet here you are bowing down to ned flanders up there look at him like he's some kind of caesar ugh don't be so dramatic i obviously don't think i'm caesar now release the lion in the end prohibition passed the house easily 282 votes to 128 and the states ratified the new amendment by 1919. america a nation obsessed with liberty and freedom had just voluntarily given up its private right to choose whether or not to drink alcohol we did it folks we fixed everything america will be perfect forever but you just dissolved america's fifth largest industry and lost tens of thousands of jobs for us immigrants no you idiot you don't get it we helped you idiot ugh i could really go for a beer oh no immediately after prohibition went into effect alcohol consumption in america decreased as americans followed the law and tried not drinking man if we're going to be law-abiding good boys we need something else to fill the dark lonely void that delicious beer once did well how about we crack open a nice cold can of water hell yeah toss it over nah this isn't doing it for me let's try knitting this isn't filling the dark void at all want to play some kites ah screw it let's go get some illegal beer well it seemed like many americans supported prohibition after the law went into effect it seemed like just as many americans intended to keep on drinking and they would go on to find a variety of ways to break the new law punching paddy passing prohibition and procuring pints pretty soon after the new law went into effect the failures of prohibition were already beginning to rear their ugly heads for starters the details of the new prohibition law written by none other than wayne wheeler himself turned out to be more draconian than expected many prohibition supporters only wanted to outlaw hard liquor and hoped beer would remain legal but the volstead act outlawed anything over 0.5 percent that would make liberty cabbage illegal secondly the new law was full of loopholes that americans very quickly began to exploit for example while the sale and manufacture of liquor was illegal drinking it wasn't and you could also keep any alcohol you had before the law went into effect so many private clubs hoarded huge amounts of alcohol that saw them through the entire prohibition period whiskey intended for medicinal purposes was also allowed and doctors basically became bartenders it looked as though a full-on epidemic had broken out as there was a sudden surge in prescriptions for whiskey sacramental wines used by churches and synagogues were also permitted orders for communion wines suspiciously skyrocketed by millions of gallons and as rabbis had access to religious wine suddenly everyone was becoming a rabbi you had rabbi pat o'leary rabbi ll cool fluffy but don't worry i'm sure all these definitely legitimate religious figures couldn't possibly be selling wine in the back alley after mass yep definitely nothing strange going on here new products also hit the shelves in stores such as vine glow a brick of dehydrated grape juice itself not alcoholic and therefore perfectly legal but the packaging did contain a strangely specific warning after dissolving the brick in a gallon of water do not place the liquid in a jug in the cupboard for 20 days because then it would turn oh yeah i'll take a thousand yes sir now at this point i want you to think back for me if you will to the year 2005 you're the coolest kid around and you convince your parents to rent the greatest movie of all time from your local blockbuster but the movie starts with a strange message something about not downloading a car you immediately disregard that and hop on kazak to download the greatest song of all time and in the process drain your dad's bank account with copious amounts of ransomware you were breaking the law you bad boy or girl but did anyone come to arrest you no that's my point if no one's enforcing a law while everyone's breaking it is it really a law and so it was with prohibition see the conservative-led governments of the decade were also the kind of people who believed in small government spending so they'd passed a lot that would be extremely difficult to enforce but also didn't want to spend any of the money required to enforce it the newly created bureau just miserable tight arses aren't they it looks like it's another beer and chill out absolutely prohibition only had 1500 agents to cover the entire country that's one agent for every 70 666 americans in a massive country with 12 000 miles of coastline and one gigantic land border with canada good luck schmuckos and all these clever little loopholes people were using to score illegal booze were only just the beginning america was about to devolve into alcohol-fueled criminal chaos by outlawing it prohibition had made alcohol a precious commodity and millions of americans would become outlaws as they found a variety of ways to score illegal booze for example many americans began making their own liquor illegal stills from making moonshine were found by prohibition agents from the hills of kentucky and the caves of arizona to parking lots in major cities and even in the homes of prohibition supporting politicians but come on now i voted for prohibition i'm not gonna have an illegal still what's this that's my son freddy say hi freddy sir this is obviously an illegal still how dare you hey what's this in the bathtub that's bath water why does it taste like alcohol uh here's a better question why are you tasting my bath water weirdo let's get away from these perverts to discourage moonshining the government began adding extra toxins to many of the products moonshiners were using which resulted in many cases of severe illness and death but alcohol wasn't i wonder if that's where the blindness comes from everything with moonshine well i've had drinks before where the next day i've like struggled to see really yeah because we've been drinking stuff that someone's made at home or all right yeah i didn't wear contact lenses or glasses before i started drinking it's true i actually started lasting there started when i was 17 wearing glasses really yeah [Laughter] i was blind up until that point it's only when i started driving i started wearing glasses because i was like i need to take this seriously i've ever seen you wearing glasses no they gave me a headache so i don't bother with them yeah so when the zombies come i've got like 30 pairs of contact lenses and then i'm [ __ ] by the zombies yeah thing made at home along america's vast coastlines rum runners smuggled alcohol into the country by sea a floating supermarket known as rum rogue extended along the east coast just beyond america's maritime limit and bootleggers frequently sailed out in small boats to pick up shipments of boos these bootleggers could then be found selling their illegal products everywhere even in the halls of congress wow pop one day i wanna work here well son if you work hard and never give up one day even you could be a massive hypocrite even president harding was known to serve his cabinet bootlegged whiskey and some bootleggers were so successful they became bazillionaires such as roy olmsted an ex-cop who became one of the biggest employers in the seattle area from smuggling booze unfortunately all of his whiskey came from canada yuck all of this criminality was being made possible by copious amounts of corruption across the country armies of government officials were persuaded to turn a blind eye bootleggers became so rich it was no problem to stuff a couple thousand dollars into the front pocket of the police chief or the mayor or their disapproving mother and some cops were getting almost as rich as the bootleggers alright men everyone gather in i've received word that one of you has been taking bribes from bootleggers any ideas who kevin perhaps got any thoughts no sir many police officers came from the same communities that drink a lot and they weren't about to arrest their own grandads for knocking back some homemade gin but all this isn't to say there was no enforcement plenty of government officials were doing their best to enforce the new laws and some unlucky individuals received very harsh penalties such as a michigan mother who is sentenced to life in prison for small-scale moonshining cases like these were widely reported in the media and only served to make prohibition even more unpopular but not just that the media also left to cover the exploits of the most famous bootleggers turning them into national icons one of the biggest bootleggers was a man named george remus originally a lawyer he watched as his bootlegger clients paid off enormous fines like it was nothing and proclaimed bootleggins the business for me but unlike most bootleggers remus had big brain and he came up with a pretty clever system see there were millions of gallons of liquor produced before prohibition that were sitting in distillery warehouses and it could only be sold with government permission to drug companies so remus set up his own drug company and borrow the liquor then he set up his own transport company to transport the liquor and then he would send his own man out with guns to intercept his own transport vehicles and this would happen hey man this is a stick up oh no please don't hurt me i won't hesitate to shoot please i have a wife and kids hand over all the whiskey fatty hey fatty isn't in the script you jerk after stealing all the whiskey from himself he could then sell it for big bucks the perfect crime unfortunately remus was eventually caught by a goody two-shoes prohibition director in indiana who wouldn't take remus bribes and the government found remus guilty of violating the volstead act three thousand times for two years as remus sat in prison his wife promised to take care of all of his money and by take care of his money she might have an affair with a prohibition agent sell off everything remus owned and filed for divorce when remus finally got out and found his big fancy mansion empty with his wife gone he reportedly broke down in tears a few months later during their divorce trial he spotted his wife in a car in cincinnati remus hopped in a cab and asked the driver to run her off the road the driver was like okay then remus got out of the cab and shot his wife dead he immediately handed himself into the police and his next trial this time for murder became a national sensation remus defended himself claiming insanity occasionally carrying out skillful questioning occasionally crying in the corner but the nation felt bad for him his wife had screwed him over and so when after just 19 minutes of deliberation the jury returned and declared him not guilty the court erupted into celebration and just to remind you this guy bluntly admitted to murdering his wife the american justice system as alcohol poured into the nation a lot of it was going to a new type of drinking establishment that had been booming in popularity a secret drinking establishment so secret that from the outside they often look like ordinary shops or homes so a secret that you usually needed a password to get in so secret that everybody knew about them speakeasy and once you were in the party went all night long scantily clad flappers snake ladies jazz it was a roaring time to be alive some publications even posted reviews of these illegal clubs and bribes galore kept the party going it seemed like half the police officers and federal agents in cities like new york were receiving kickbacks from speakeasy owners hey what the it's a long during the quite a lot of them during the pandemic and those speakeasies not that i'm aware of not that i've been to or anything like that but i've heard of people in the states talking about it i've heard people over here talking about it you can imagine yeah you can imagine as soon as you take something away that people do regularly people find a way yeah don't they and that's one thing are you waiting for when it dave you're running twenties i'm waiting for the roaring twenties that's why i'm back on the date it hops is it really yeah so it's great so i'm not yeah whatever so i've got friends to go out with i'm not like yeah the pubs are open sat on my own in the corner with a kid kevin costner is going on here officer oh hannity taking bribes why am i not surprised prohibition director simmons for shame mom what would dad say ask him yourself dad would say quit being such a wet blanket and let daddy earn his tips any time a speakeasy was shut down by authorities it seemed like three more would just pop up elsewhere and some neighborhoods were so full of them that one resident began hanging a sign to try to keep partyguards from constantly knocking on her door it really seemed like the new laws regarding alcohol in some places were simply being ignored and one prohibition agent who traveled the country liked to see which city was the most defiant by timing how long it took for him to be offered a beer after he arrived his winner new orleans where a cab driver offered him a drink after just 35 seconds bravo many voices in congress were already speaking out against prohibition and its failures to display how ridiculous the whole thing was one republican congressman gathered the media to all come and watch him drink a homemade beer when he asked a passing police officer if he'd like to arrest him the officer said no hey wayne is all this what you had in mind i thought we were going to make the country better but it almost seems like it's worse what do you mean alcohol consumption is down well that may be true in your small town world but it says here drinking in some areas is up as are arrests for public intoxication drunk driving an incidence of liver cirrhosis the general chaos has turned america into a nation of criminals with no respect for the law and all these attempts at enforcement are just costing the economy valuable money and eating up judicial time and resources release the lines the social change and corruption that wheeler and the i think there's gateway crimes if you know what i mean and if you make day-to-day stuff illegal it makes people normal people feel like a criminal that can make them start pushing the boat a little bit more into the avenues yeah yeah definitely yeah if i'm gonna get done for something that you you know like for having a drink yeah then it's not much of a step breaking the law doing something else it doesn't seem quite so bad does it because you're criminalizing normal people and it makes me feel wronged if you know what i mean yeah yeah i know what you mean anti-slingling had been so eager to prevent in the cities at least was surging see when something's legal you can usually regulate and control it but make that thing illegal and often anything becomes fair game legal drinking age gone mandatory closing hours for clubs and bars gone other unspoken socio-cultural rules surrounding alcohol gone gone gone in speakeasies different genders and ethnicities were beginning to mingle in a way they hadn't done before the roaring twenties saw a monumental shift in culture not least of all because now men and women could flirt in public without being damned for eternity an outraged wayne wheeler did his best to make sure that anyone breaking the law was punished he had even stricter legislation put in place in new york but all this did was clog up the justice system with petty drinking violations and judges began letting everyone off with light fines so the judges could get back to dealing with things that actually mattered you know things like murder and there was plenty of murder because bootleggers and moonshiners were one thing but prohibition had given another kind of criminal an opportunity to make a fortune mobsters and gangsters hey fat tony big news hey fat joey what's up i just got word from fat louis here that the government's outlawing alcohol you know what that means that means we're gonna be rich quick call fat pulling let's go hijack a liquor truck now all right hang on let me tell my wife first hey fat susan no pizza for fat joey tonight capiche stop calling me fat susan rival gangs began to battle in america's cities raiding each other's transports assassinating rivals and trying to take control of their city's illicit booze trade every city had its top dog detroit had the purple gang new england had charles king solomon but no city was as infamous for gang violence and murder as chicago the city had multiple gang factions and al capone in chicago yeah i would guess so yeah first they agreed to stay in their own neighborhoods but the thing about criminals is that they're criminals and the agreements inevitably broke down one day the leader of the italian southside gang was walking along the street when this happened and he was like you know i think i'm done with this and left for new york leaving his crime empire to his chief enforcer none other than al capone having been knifed in the face in his younger years capone earned himself the name scarface although interestingly he hated that nickname and preferred to be called snorky snorky was ruthless just like any other gang leader in america but what set him apart from others the reason he's become synonymous with 1920s gang warfare is this most other gang leaders would try to keep a low profile because you know they're killing and murdering and stuff but capone lived for the fame and kept an extremely high public profile frequently speaking with the media about his exploits and presenting himself as a gracious host providing chicago with good times no need to thank me fellas i just provide the city with a valuable commodity while doing away with the competition you mean you murder people whoa who said anything about murder i just you know forced my rivals underground when you do the thing with the hands it seems like you're talking about murder whoa look at you with the brains no no i just help people retire from life so murder al snorky capone was somewhat of an enigma brutal in how he dealt with enemies but in front of the camera he was all smiles one day he'd be ordering hit after hit the next he'd be signing autographs in wrigley field one day he'd be bludgeoning members of his own gang with a baseball bat for conspiring against him the next he'd be playing santa at a nearby parochial school and no murder could ever be traced back to him just like every other criminal he stuffed the pockets of city officials with cold hard cash and any who did try to oppose him sometimes found themselves being thrown down the steps of city hall in broad daylight problem solved the public couldn't get enough of capone he quickly became a household name as people romanticized the gang life he lived and this became a source of concern for the people at the very top uh president hoover ugh what is it now miles i'm busy well it's just that there's a lot of crime sir crime how long's that been happening well since the dawn of man sir what would you like me to blame it on the democrats again no miles i want you to blame it on squirrels yes the democrats now stop wasting my time since having a crime lord controlling public officials and winning the hearts of the people probably wasn't a good thing hoover personally ordered that something be done about this capone fellow but before he knew it president hoover was also dealing with another major problem you know him you love him woman the prohibition era had been going on for nearly a decade and anyone with a brain could see that it really wasn't going very well one person with a brain was pauline saban an extremely influential and rich woman who served on the republican national committee fundraised for republican presidents and had a secret wine room in her giant mansion she initially supported prohibition but was now disgusted at the chaos it had created and she began a new women's movement this time not for prohibition but against it being the extremely influential woman she was her new organization gained nearly 1.5 million members within two years five times out of the women's christian temperance union she hated that the wctu claimed to speak for all women and she began calling for the repeal of the 18th amendment president hoover i helped fund your campaign and now i want you to end prohibition miles what is it i say when i'm not going to do anything you'll look into it sir oh yeah that's right pauline i'll look into it sabin gave speeches on the steps of congress and helped start a growing push among the american people against prohibition but hoover a prohibitionist himself wasn't budging then on the 14th of february 1929 something happened that shocked this has been going on for over 10 years no booze long time isn't it i didn't realize i thought it was a couple of years and i thought yeah it was a big disaster and they just got rid of it yeah any time 10 years it is absolutely yeah everyone's still getting pissed the whole time yeah i know nothing's changed they've even worsened before by the sound of it yeah something you've got saudi arabia no booze there you got pissed every night so my dad always used to tell me about the middle east when he was out i need to know where to go yeah it's all out there yeah the nation men thought to be working for al capone tricked some irish mobsters into meeting them at a garage in chicago thinking they were there to purchase hijacked whiskey instead the mobsters were lined up against the wall by men dressed as police and they were shot the valentine's day massacre had people outraged it was cruel and almost felt like american mobsters had finally crossed the line people were sick of the violence and in part they blamed prohibition for helping to create it the pressure on hoover to do something was steadily increasing so what if the government changed the date you know we were talking about there's a meeting and if it's not april the 12th when beer gardens open back up that picture is getting recreated i won't be guaranteeing it i want you to put a report together to see if this whole thing is working you mean the thing where mobsters are becoming increasingly powerful and massacring each other in the streets and everyone is disregarding the law and half our public officials are corrupt and taking bribes that thing yeah i want to know if it's working or not miles stop wasting my time hoover continued to drag his feet on prohibition but after the valentine's day massacre he was still determined to do one thing he wanted al capone in prison since capone had been so careful the fbi were having a hard time charging him with anything but eventually they got him capone we know you're supplying chicago with alcohol and you've been involved in countless murders whoa look at you at the crazy talk i ain't done none of that stuff but you're rich right you're damn right i am and so where'd all the money come from capone alright i'll let you in on a little secret but you gotta promise not to tell anyone okay i don't pay my taxes whoa for all of his murdering the irs finally got capone on tax evasion at his trial he didn't seem too concerned though and spent most of his time having a laugh with his lawyers hey capone i gotta know why are you so confident you're gonna win here well your honor because i'm an honest man with a big heart who's passionate about working for the good of the people and also because i threatened the entire jury's families luckily at the last minute the judge replaced the entire jury pool with a new one that capone's men hadn't yet got to and capone was found guilty he was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison the harshest penalty ever given to a tax evader but even with capone locked away the violence in chicago and other cities continue and in response the movement against prohibition continued to grow and the final nail in prohibition's coffin came in 1929 after a decade of booming economic growth under three republican presidents the stock market plummeted and america was thrown into the grips of the great depression it was an awful time one out of every five workers 15 million people would lose their jobs half the nation's banks failed temporary shantytowns were built for the broken homeless in public parks suddenly very few people had time to care about prohibition expensive enforcement of an unenforceable law didn't seem like that big of a priority when people were having their homes repossessed and losing their life savings and many began to argue that repealing prohibition would create vital jobs and tax revenue for the government yet president hoover doubled down here's that report you asked for sir give me prohibition is great fantastic news sir it says your prohibition is great at undermining the rule of law in america miles it says the word great that means good now stop wasting my time the public increasingly shocked at the violence they saw on the streets the corruption they saw in the government the general disregard for the law and now an economic calamity had had enough for his re-election hoover faced a democratic candidate who promised to finally do something about prohibition franklin d roosevelt crowd's cheer that's gotta be the easiest win in history it's gonna be present yeah i'll bring the booze back i'll vote for booze he's not yeah there you go as fdr made his campaign speeches promising to modify the volstead act and pauline saban a lifelong republican along with her 1.5 million supporters endorsed roosevelt and on election day it was a landslide before fdr had even taken office republicans in congress began the process of passing the 21st amendment to repeal prohibition one of fdr's first acts as president was to pass the beer permit act which made beer legal while the new amendment was being ratified in 1933 with the passage of the 21st amendment prohibition was finally over and the people celebrated like they'd just won a world war bars and taverns were packed the wctu were inconsolable wayne wheeler was dead and the celebration particularly in america's cities was intense heading into the mid-1930s the effects of prohibition were cleared to see from now on culture around drinking had changed with men and women drinking together not in saloons but in bars and taverns the crime syndicates that had been given so much power through prohibition remained powerful as they moved on to other things some states opted to remain dry with oklahoma only repealing its prohibition laws in 1959. to this day there are still counties in america with some form of prohibition so what did we learn today kids what's the big lesson here what's the moral of this story that we can all take away and apply to our day-to-day lives maybe that you shouldn't force your own morals on others who don't share them maybe that if you tell americans not to do something that's the one thing they'll definitely do or maybe there is no lesson maybe we're all just a bunch of dumb stinky idiots and we're all doomed the end nice very good love that i think that's a foreshadowing of weed in this country i genuinely think with the economic hole that kovid has left i think they'll end up legalizing weed heavily taxing it i think so that'll go back towards infrastructure and economic they've been mad not to don't think it's one of those i know a lot a lot of arguments against it is that it leads on to sort of like harder drugs isn't it yeah you know legalize them then as well yeah just make more argument again that goes back to what i say about criminalizing normal people it's like one in five people in the uk is smoke weed some ridiculous statistics like that do you think you have an age limit on the lady of alcohol right 16 or whatever they should do it should be you know 18 or even you know whatever i think we do i mean i don't think anyone for smoking it all in possession you know i don't think anyone goes to prison for it these days today over here because it's just like a personal use i think it's just a wrap on the knuckles and away you go isn't it there's loads of [ __ ] you don't go to prison for over here now yeah yeah well yeah a lot worse than that as well i think they'd be mad not to do that the government because they could yeah they could plug a big hole in the economy just by doing that and you've criminalized one in five people in the uk whereas that then it may lead to being a gateway to other things but yeah if it's not an issue if it's just like having a drink you don't you don't have a drink of whiskey and then go i'm going to do heroin yeah no no i mean sometimes you might well it depends you could start on beer but then go on to stronger alcohol as well which is illegal which is legal no but all i'm saying is you know things can lead on to stronger you know yes with a bigger hit sort of thing which is the same thing with you know drugs did some countries have legalized it aren't they in europe portugal decriminalized all drugs so sweet portugal in portugal it's been like that for a few years yeah but it's safe isn't it it's the uh yeah but but you can get legal alternatives so you can get legal heroin in sweden and heroin use is dropped that legal heroin is not going to be pure heroin though is it's gonna be like washing up powder with [ __ ] do you think the stuff junkies on the street isn't pure you know what i mean so if it's like medical grade and it's not gonna kill you it's easier to wean people off it and get them back into say yeah you're not scumbag criminal anymore you're a person with an addiction problem and we can help you yeah true sounds good it's an interesting topic yeah it should be called politician dave i think or a smackhead yeah i didn't realize it was that long no no because in 1933 it ended and it was i know what was it was oklahoma 1959 yeah yeah what's going on what's going on what's wrong with oklahoma a long time long yeah like i don't like you i thought it's maybe a couple of years yeah maximum but if it's going on that long wow it would absolutely just fall a bit so yeah you guys like that too don't forget uh i can have and subscribe and hit the bell and all that good stuff and we'll catch you guys on the next one cheers you

Channel: Office Blokes React

Views: 119,636

Rating: 4.9416766 out of 5

Keywords: react, reaction, reaction channel, british, british reaction, office, blokes, english reaction, english, banter, atlantic podcast studios, funny reaction, funny, laugh, brits react to, dads react to, office bloke dave, office bloke daz, office bloke mike, british reaction channel, english reaction channel, office blokes try, oversimplified, oversimplified reaction, prohibition, oversimplified prohibition reaction, alcahol, booze, american reaction, usa reaction, brits react to prohibition

Id: dwAXRLWV504

Length: 46min 29sec (2789 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 03 2021