Moonshine: Encyclopedia II - Moonshine - Moonshine in popular culture

Moonshine - Moonshine in popular culture

Moonshine is often portrayed in the media in a clay jug marked only with XXX. Supposedly, the moonshiner would inscribe a single X on the jug each time the mixture passed through a still. This image of a jug or bottle marked XXX is used in comic strips and cartoons to depict an intoxicating beverage. For example, Drinky Crow is often shown drinking from one of these stereotypical jugs. Although clay jugs may have been widely used in the 19th-Century, glass "Mason Jars" have predominated since at least the early 20th-century, with plastic jugs also coming into use in the 1970s. Devotees of Moonshine usually prefer to purchase and consume the elixer from Mason Jars because it is easier to judge quality and lacks the plastic aftertaste.

The 1958 movie Thunder Road was about running moonshine. During Prohibition cars were "souped-up" to create a more maneuverable and faster car. Many of the original drivers of NASCAR were former Ridge-Runners in the cars they raced in.

Steve Earle's popular song Copperhead Road revolves around a family of moonshiners.

In the 1980's television show (and 2005 movie) The Dukes of Hazzard, both based on the 1975 movie "Moonrunners", moonshine was a central element of the backstory. The Duke family were covert moonshiners, until the nephews were caught running moonshine out of the county. "Uncle Jesse" made a deal with the government to shut down the moonshining operation; in exchange, his nephews were released and were on probation for most of the series. Many of the early episodes center around moonshine made by someone else, usually associates of Boss Hogg, planting said liquor on Duke property in an effort to revoke the younger Dukes' probation. This series plays off of a large number of the stereotypes commonly associated with the Appalachian moonshiners.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Moonshine in popular culture", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki