Saturday, May 21, 2011

Australian planking meme goes global


Someone recently asked for a post on planking, and who am I to deny a reader's request?

For those of you who aren't aware of Planking- it's an internet meme that began in Australia where you post a photo of yourself lying facedown and straight like a board (or a plank...get it??) in an unusual location. Sounds innocuous enough, right? And it was, until some kid fell off a balcony and died, prompting a ridiculous amount of planking press and a planking backlash. Now schools are banning planking, which just strikes me as absurd. What if the "dangerous trend" were sitting? Would sitting be banned as well? For the record, I do find some of the planking photos humorous, but I'm so tired of the hullabaloo (grandma vocab!) that I might just have to go plank in my bed.

4 comments:

Dean said...

Apparently it actually started in the UK. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lying_down_game

eileen said...

whoa! and the person who wanted me to post about it lives in the UK. C'mon, Kevin, get with the program!

Kevin said...

Thanks for the post, Eileen! I didn't say it started in Oz, only that it was hitting the headlines in Oz. Plus the fact that the Aussies do it so much better than the Brits, and planking is such a cooler name for it that "the lying down game"! But I won't be satisfied until I see a picture of you planking in the lab or somewhere else ridiculous. Actually, maybe a picture of you planking on the diner counter at Harry's? The gauntlet has been thrown down.

Lily@FaunMusic said...

Oh my! So thats where this all started! People keep posting "planking" photos on my facebook and it was confusing me. Thanks for clearing this up ^.^