Life — March 21, 1930 — page 8: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis This is a single illustrated cartoon showing two figures perched dangerously high on a steel-frame building under construction, looking down at the cityscape far below. The caption reads: "So I says, 'Minnie, don't polish them stairs—d'ye want me to break me neck?'" The humor is a working-class domestic joke about a wife (Minnie) polishing stairs, creating a slipping hazard. The cartoon plays on the irony that a construction worker—whose job involves genuine peril at great heights—expresses greater concern about the trivial domestic risk of slipping on polished stairs at home. It's satire of masculine bravado: he'll risk his life at work but worries about minor household hazards. The comic appears to be commentary on working-class attitudes and priorities.