Lunchbox (song)

Criteria, Miami
The Village, Los Angeles
| genre = Heavy metal

"Lunchbox" was released as a single on February 6, 1995 alongside three remixes of the song created by Nine Inch Nails keyboardist Charlie Clouser – "Next Motherfucker", "Brown Bag" and "Metal" – as well as a censored version of the A side called "Lunchbox (Highschool Drop Outs)", and a cover of "Down in the Park" (1979) by Gary Numan. While recording the B sides for the single, Manson invited a deaf groupie to the studio and asked her to strip naked. He then covered her with hot dogs, pig's feet, and salami. Madonna Wayne Gacy started having sex with her and shouted "I'm going to come in your useless ear canal." As she showered off, Twiggy Ramirez and Manson urinated on her. In his autobiography, The Long Hard Road Out of Hell (1998), Manson commented on the incident: "I think she, too, found it to be art and was having a good time."

"Lunchbox" is a heavy metal song Berkowitz told the Sun Sentinel that the song's narrative fits with Manson's self image as an "outcast who stands up to abuse yet, in the process, catches hell from authorities." Writing for the Houston Press, Kristy Loye said that the song features a "level of cultural examination" which separates it from the macho and heteronormative heavy metal music of the 1980s. "Lunchbox" contains elements of "Fire" (1968) performed by Arthur Brown, The track features the sound of small children saying profanities, an effect which Matt Zakosek of The Chicago Maroon noted was later used on Outkast's album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (2003). Metal Hammers Alec Chillingworth felt that the song's "wacky, stomping hook" is similar to the music of Jack Off Jill.

Metal Hammer ranked the song 66 on their list of "The 100 best metal songs of the 90s", saying that "The seeds of Manson becoming Public Enemy Number One in the United States were being sown on his 1994 debut Portrait Of An American Family, and despite this not being the most terrifying song in his repertoire you just can’t deny the power of the chorus." Metal Hammer readers voted the track the seventeenth greatest heavy metal song of the 1990s. The Miami Heralds Howard Cohen said that Berkowitz's "musicianship, songwriting, and industrial guitar gave early Marilyn Manson its musical credibility on songs like 'Lunchbox,' 'My Monkey,' 'Dope Hat,' and 'Cake and Sodomy.'" In Exclaim!, Monica S. Kuebler called the track one of the band's "indispensable goth club classics from the mid '90s". Similarly, Ben Crandell of The Washington Post wrote that "While the band drew attention for its theatrical excesses, it prospered in large part because of the musical credibility provided by the gleaming, industrial gear shredding of [Berkowitz's] guitar on early Manson songs such as 'Lunchbox,' 'Dope Hat' and their hit cover of the Eurythmics' 'Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This).'" Bloody Disgusting's Brad Miska said that the "dirty, edgy, and uninhibited" song "was part of my musical awakening and self discovery as a teenager." He added that after hearing the track, "Marilyn Manson quickly became my favorite band." Kristy Loye of the Houston Press called the track "fresh" and praised it for bringing a "level of shock and interrogation of acceptable performance hadn’t been seen since the glam/punk heyday of '70s era Iggy Pop and David Bowie." For MetalSucks, Axl Rosenberg called "Lunchbox" and "Tourniquet" (1996) some of "Manson's best early material", while Loudwires John Hill said that, on the track, Berkowitz was "responsible for some of the most iconic guitar work from the band". Josh Sisk of Noisey praised "Lunchbox" despite not being a fan of the band. The Chicago Maroon Matt Zakosek deemed the song's use of children spewing profanities "kind of ridiculous" and "a lame stab at shock value".

Directed by sexual fetishist and experimental filmmaker Richard Kern and based on a concept created by Manson and Kern, the song's music video stars Robert Pierce, who was six years old at the time, as a young Manson; Pierce also performed on tour with the band and on the band's song "My Monkey". In the clip, Pierce is bullied on his way to a roller rink as he carries his metal lunchbox. He then vows revenge and gives himself a Mohawk hairstyle, before growing up to become a rock star. The band is shown obstructing roller skaters, and a child puts makeup on Manson. At the end of the video, a Rambo lunchbox is destroyed with fire; metal Rambo lunchboxes were the last metal lunchboxes to be mass produced. Shooting the video caused Manson to recall negative memories, as Pierce physically resembled a bully he had encountered as a child. The video was released in 1995. Writing for Bloody Disgusting, Jonathan Barkan said "I don’t know what this video is supposed to try and convey I feel like this was trying to be edgy but it comes off more as crying for attention."