An Irishman, a Mexican, and a Surfer Dude were taking a lunch break during construction work on the 20th floor of a building. As they sat down on some scaffolding and opened their lunch pails, the Irishman commented, “Corned beef and cabbage! If I get corned beef and cabbage one more time for lunch, I’m going to jump off this building.”
The Mexican looked at his lunch and exclaimed, “Burritos again! If I get burritos one more time I’m going to jump off, too.”
The Surfer Dude opened his lunch and said, “Bologna again! If I get a bologna sandwich one more time, I’m jumping too.”
The next day, the Irishman opened his lunch box, saw corned beef and cabbage, and jumped to his death. The Mexican opened his lunch, saw a burrito, and jumped, too. The Surfer Dude opened his lunch, saw the bologna and jumped to his death as well…
At the funeral, the Irishman’s wife was weeping. She said, “If I’d known how really tired he was of corned beef and cabbage, I never would have given it to him again!”
The Mexican’s wife also wept and said, “I could have given him tacos or enchiladas! I didn’t realize he hated burritos so much!”
Everyone turned and stared at the Surfer Dude's wife, who said angrily, “Don’t look at me! He makes his own lunch!”
“Lunch Atop a Skyscraper,” 1932
The 1930s were a decade of many iconic photos, from the Hindenburg zeppelin bursting into flames to a classic photo purporting to show the Loch Ness monster. Arguably the most famous, however, was a black-and-white portrait of 11 ironworkers eating lunch while sitting precariously on a steel beam 850 feet in the air, taken during the construction of Rockefeller Center in New York City.