Where "Wouldn't Work in an Iron Lung" Comes From
Call someone “so lazy they wouldn't work in an iron lung” and you're making a dark little joke — an iron lung is the medical device that breathed for polio patients, so the idea is that this person is too lazy even to do something the machine would do for them automatically.
The phrase dates to the 1950s, during Australia's mid-century polio epidemics, and even turns up in Frank Hardy's 1970 novel The Outcasts of Foolgarah.
That bloke wouldn't work in an iron lung.
How Aussies Actually Use It
A blunt, old-fashioned way of calling someone extremely lazy — still understood, though less common than it once was.
Usually said with a laugh rather than real anger, as an exaggerated dig at someone's work ethic.
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