Planking (fad)

Not to be confused with Plank (exercise).
For other uses, see Planking and Plank.
Planking in a field

Planking (or the Lying Down Game) is an activity consisting of lying face down—sometimes in an unusual or incongruous location. Both hands must touch the sides of the body.[1] Some players compete to find the most unusual and original location in which to play.[1] The term planking refers to mimicking a wooden plank. Planking can include lying flat on a flat surface, or holding the body flat while it is supported in only some regions, with other parts of the body suspended. Many participants in planking have photographed the activity in unusual locations and have shared such pictures through social media.

Eminem references planking in his single "Rap God" after the practice gained popularity and eventually notoriety from late 2010 - early 2011 in Australia.[2]

History

Precursors

A planking-like activity – called face dancing by its participants – was initiated in 1984 in Edmonds, Washington, by Scott Amy and Joel Marshall.[3] The two high school age boys were walking in a park when they came upon a baseball game. They decided to lie face down in right field to see if anyone would react.

The first video-recorded occurrence of planking was in 1994 when Tom Green performed a stunt he called "Dead Guy" for a cable TV show, which consisted of Green lying down on an Ottawa sidewalk without moving. Green, who was in an MTV show in the 1990s, is a comedian known for his pranks. He informed CNN about this video evidence and how it did not air on the show, stating that it was “a very obscure piece of video.”[4] Green tweeted “Just found video of me #planking in 1994. I will post it soon. Let people know. :)” on July 12, 2011.[5]

However the video sketch was never aired. So when, in 1997, two bored school boys in Taunton started lying face-down in public places to amuse themselves and baffle onlookers they could not have known of Green's stunt. Gary Clarkson (then aged 15) and Christian Langdon (then aged 12) called it the "lying down game". As Clarkson puts it, "It was just a really stupid, random thing to do."[6][7]

The Lying Down Game remained within Clarkson and Langdon's circle of friends until 2007, when their friend Daniel Hoppin created a Facebook page for their craze. As Hoppin says, "We began a Facebook group to see who could get the craziest photo."[7]

The term "Planking" was coined by Sam Weckert, of Adelaide, South Australia, "Planking was a term myself and two other mates came up with in the summer of 2008".[7] Weckert created a Facebook fan page to share "planking" photos. After reports of the practice started appearing in the Australian media, it grew rapidly and the meme became a global phenomenon.[8]

After reports of the craze in the British media in 2009,[9][10] the lying down game spread to the rest of the world. Worldwide it has also been known as "extreme lying down" (2008, Australasia), "facedowns" (2010, USA and Ireland),[11][12] and "planking" (2011, Australia, New Zealand and worldwide).[13] In the years following its explosion in popularity, several variations on planking have proliferated, some inspired by the fad, and others that have arose independently.

Controversies

The popularity of planking has generated a backlash.[14] Some people object to the more ridiculous photos that have circulated, such as a girl planking with her head in a toilet or a woman planking on a stripper pole.[15] Also, planking in dangerous places has resulted in many injuries and at least one death.[16]

Notable incidents

Variations

Playing Dead

Playing Dead (known as "시체놀이" in Korean) originated in South Korea in 2003.[30] It involves a large number of participants pretending to be dead. It was inspired by the manga character Crayon Shin-Chan and is thought to have arisen independently of planking.[31]

Hadoukening

Hadoukening also known as Makankosappo, involves two or more people staging a “Ki attack” knockout sequence and photographing themselves in mid-action, posed like in the popular Japanese fighting arcade game Street Fighter or manga series Dragon Ball.[32]

Milking

Milking is a fad which became popular in early 2013. Participants purchase a large bottle of milk, and then empty it over their face by holding it above them. This fad is thought to be linked to the similar fad of Gallon smashing.

Gallon smashing

Gallon smashing is a similar fad to Milking. It involves a person purchasing one or more gallons of fluid (usually milk) and then spilling the fluid, usually by slamming or dropping the bottles against the floor. The fad also involves falling in the mess or slipping on it, getting members of the public to help them, and sometimes having difficulty getting back to a standing position.

Vadering

Vadering mimics Darth Vader’s Force Choke hold. One person has their hand up in a choking gesture, while their “victim” looks to be raised off the ground while clutching at their neck.[33][34]

Teapotting

Teapotting is one of the many variations of planking that arose shortly after planking went viral. Teapotting consists of bending the arms into the shape of a teapot, in reference to the children's song "I'm a Little Teapot". This variation was created by teachers in Mortlake College in an attempt to create a new 'craze' after noticing the amount of attention given to planking.[35]

Owling

Owling is a variation on planking in which a person squats "like an owl" in a populated but unusual area. Participants commonly make noises similar to an owl, to make the owl impression more realistic.[36] It was first documented on 11 July 2011 in a post on the social news website reddit.[36][37]

Horsemaning

Main article: Horsemaning

Horsemaning involves posing two people so that they appear to be a single body with a detached head and is a revival of a photography fad popular in the 1920s.[38] It is thought that the name comes from the Headless Horseman in Washington Irving's short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.[39]

Batmanning

Batmanning involves hanging upside down by the feet.[40][41][42]

Springing

Springing is a variation of planking that involves standing beside one or multiple spring riders in a children's outdoor playground, flicking the riders so they bounce backwards and forwards, and then standing beside them with arms raised and imitating the spring shaking action.[43]

Dufnering

Dufnering is a variation of planking that involves a person lying with the bottom half of their body on the floor, the top half leaning up, their arms close to the side of their body, and their hands ending towards the bottom of their thighs. The person would also be looking straightforward. The fad began when Rory McIlroy tweeted a photo of himself imitating 2013 PGA Championship winner Jason Dufner.[44]

Pratting

Pratting is a variation of planking that was spawned from a scene in the film Jurassic World in which Chris Pratt's character uses a defensive posture in order to save himself from velociraptors while inside of their cage. The pose requires the user to have their knees slightly bent, head forward, arms extended out far (sometimes with one closer to the subject) and fingers up. Immediately following the films wide release, many zookeepers posted images of themselves in similar formation with their respective animals.[45]

Football-related

Tebowing

Tebowing is a phenomenon that began to spread in October 2011. It involves imitating National Football League quarterback Tim Tebow's habit of getting down on one knee, resting one or both arms across the upright knee, bowing his head, and praying, especially in a setting where others are doing something unrelated.[46][47][48][49][50][51][52]

Gronking

Toucher and Rich, of Boston's 98.5FM sports talk radio station, started a trend for New England Patriots fans to compete with Tebowing during the 2011 NFL season. Rob Gronkowski, a player for the Patriots, was known for spiking the football in a very characteristic manner. Replacing the football with any inanimate object and spiking it when Gronkowski made a touchdown became known as Gronking.[53]

Bradying

After the loss to the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLVI, a photograph of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady spread throughout the Internet, with him sitting down with his head lowered and hands clasped between his legs. The picture was taken after Brady threw an interception late in the game. Unlike "Gronking" and "Tebowing", Bradying is not considered a "celebration". Many called Tebowing the pose of 2011, and Bradying the pose of 2012.[54][55] However, Tebowing.com creator Jared Kleinstein claimed that the pose would not catch on for long, claiming that it was too negative.[56]

Griffining

Rookie Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III (RGIII)'s first NFL touchdown pass was an 88-yard pass play to Pierre Garcon against the New Orleans Saints. In the process of throwing the pass, Griffin was knocked to the ground, and watched the rest of the play from that position. As Garcon streaked across the goal-line, Griffin, seated on the turf, thrust his hands in the air showing a #1 with both index fingers, thereby spawning the Griffining Internet meme.[57] The Griffining movement began in earnest when Brent from @BurgundyBlog tweeted, "How has the sitting-down-arms-up posture not yet incited a 'Griffining' meme?" Soon afterward, the Griffining pose was featured on an ESPN segment and on the front page of The Washington Post. Robert Griffin III was later asked how he felt about the new meme by ESPN's Rick Reilly and he responded with, "Who would have thought getting knocked on your butt and throwing a touchdown would start a phenomenon like that? I’m not opposed to it. It’s pretty funny to me."[58][59]

Kaepernicking

In the 2012-13 NFC Divisional Playoffs between the San Francisco 49ers and Green Bay Packers, 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick celebrated a touchdown by flexing his right arm and kissing his bicep.[60] Afterwards, 49ers fans began posting photos online of themselves performing the pose, and Kaepernick had retweeted other fans' photos of the pose on Twitter.[61] However, USA Today pointed out that Kaepernicking had already been performed by other athletes prior to the game, including wrestler Scott Steiner, Steve Nash, and Metta World Peace.[62] Kaepernick later trademarked the pose.[63]

Gallery

References

  1. 1 2 [Staff] (September 9, 2009). "The lying down game: how to play". The Daily Telegraph (London). Retrieved November 13, 2010.
  2. ↑ David Drake (15 October 2013). ""...Off of planking, tell me what the fuck are you thinking?"". Complex AU.
  3. ↑ "Face Dancing AKA Plaking". http://nanotechnopolis.com. External link in |website= (help)
  4. ↑ Duke, Alan (14 July 2011). "New clues in planking origins mystery". CNN Entertainment. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
  5. ↑ Bershad, Jon. "You Know That Internet Phenomenon ‘Planking’? Seems That Tom Green Invented It In 1994". Mediaite. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
  6. ↑ Meltzer, Tom (16 May 2011). "Planking: a brief history". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 13 June 2013.
  7. 1 2 3 [Staff] (16 May 2011). "Who, What, Why: What is planking?". BBC News Magazine (BBC). Retrieved 13 June 2013.
  8. ↑ https://web.archive.org/20121130193539/http://www.skynews.com.au/national/article.aspx?id=612302&vId=. Archived from the original on November 30, 2012. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  9. 1 2 [Staff] (9 September 2009). "'Lying down' NHS staff suspended". BBC News Magazine (London). Retrieved 13 June 2013.
  10. ↑ [Staff] (10 July 2009). "The lying down game on Facebook". The Telegraph (London). Retrieved November 13, 2010.
  11. ↑ Guzman, Monica (March 26, 2010). "'And here I am facedown by the Coliseum'". Seattle PI. Retrieved 5 June 2011.
  12. ↑ Byrne, Niall (May 14, 2010). "Facedown on the up". Irish Independent. Retrieved 5 June 2011.
  13. ↑ Russel, Mathew. "Planking Gladstone". Queensland Police. Retrieved 2011-05-26.
  14. ↑ "I Hate Planking - Google Search".
  15. ↑ Wright, Danielle (2011-07-06). "Planking: What’s All the Controversy About?". BET. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
  16. ↑ "'Planking' death puts spotlight on bizarre Web craze". CNN. 2011-05-18.
  17. ↑ Simon de Bruxelles (September 10, 2009). "Seven NHS staff suspended over Facebook 'Lying Down Game' pictures". The Times (London). Retrieved November 13, 2010.
  18. ↑ Richard Savill (September 9, 2009). "Hospital staff suspended over Facebook 'lying down game' pictures". The Telegraph (London). Retrieved November 13, 2010.
  19. ↑ The Times [Staff] (September 10, 2009). "Internet Craze 'Lying Down Game' Gets 7 Doctors, Nurses Suspended in Emergency Ward". Fox News. Retrieved November 13, 2010. Using content from The Times.
  20. ↑ "Australia man plunges to 'planking' death - World news - Asia-Pacific - msnbc.com". MSNBC. 2011-05-15. Retrieved 2011-07-25.
  21. ↑ "Darwin awards". Retrieved 2012-01-13.
  22. ↑ "PM's son named 'New Zealand's top planker'" Yahoo News/AFP (31 May 2011)
  23. ↑ "PM says a safe plank fine by him". One News. 31 May 2011. Retrieved 3 November 2011.
  24. ↑ Did John Key kill planking meme?. Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved on 2012-01-19.
  25. ↑ Golliver, Ben (2011-09-02). "Dwight Howard planks with 100 fans in China". CBS Interactive. Retrieved 2011-09-03.
  26. ↑ Gardner, Sam. "Dwight Howard planks with 100 fans in China". FS Florida. FoxSports.com. Retrieved 3 September 2011.
  27. ↑ "The Office - Planking (Season 8) FULL". YouTube. 2011-09-26. Retrieved 2012-07-31.
  28. ↑ Friar, Christine (23 September 2011). "The Office Tries Planking for its Season Premier www.huffingtonpost.com 9-23-2011". Huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2012-07-31.
  29. ↑ . www.mmafighting.com (2012-01-20). Retrieved on 2012-01-23.
  30. ↑ "People Playing Dead In Public Locations". 9 July 2010. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
  31. ↑ "Planking Fails". 16 August 2011. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
  32. ↑ Prakash, Neha. "Hadouken Meme Strikes Internet Like Lighting".
  33. ↑ huffingtonpost france. "PHOTOS. Le Vadering : après le Harlem Shake et le "kamehameha", la nouvelle mode photo des internautes". huffingtonpost france.
  34. ↑ Perez, Daniel. "Vadering Meme Features Darth Vader’s Force Choke". ubergizmo.
  35. ↑ "Forget planking – now it's teapotting". General. Examiner. 28 July 2011. Retrieved July 28, 2011.
  36. 1 2 Doug Gross, (2011). "Forget planking -- who's up for owling? - CNN.com". cnn.com. Retrieved 22 July 2011.
  37. ↑ Owling the new planking. YouTube. Retrieved on 2012-01-19.
  38. ↑ Bentley, Paul (12 August 2011). "Off their heads! 1920s photography craze for 'horsemanning' has a very modern makeover". Daily Mail (London).
  39. ↑ 'Planking' is Dead; Long Live 'Horsemaning' [SLIDESHOW] – International Business Times. Ibtimes.com (2011-08-11). Retrieved on 2012-01-19.
  40. ↑ Forget planking, it's Batmanning Sept 7 2011, The Sun
  41. ↑ "Holy cow! Now students develop another craze... Batmanning". Daily Mail (London). 10 September 2011.
  42. ↑ Batmanning is a Christian Bale stunt with an Adam West flavour Sept 11 2011, The Guardian's Sam Leith
  43. ↑ "Shakin' things up with the spring riders - #Springing". YouTube.
  44. ↑ "The birth of Dufnering". PGA.com.
  45. ↑ "Zookeepers recreate Chris Pratt's velociraptor pose from Jurassic World". The Daily Telegraph (London). 18 June 2015.
  46. ↑ Hess, Joshua (2 November 2011). "Embracing 'Tebowing'". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 3 December 2011.
  47. ↑ Foster, Daniel. "Tebow’s Religion, and Ours". National Review. Retrieved 3 December 2011.
  48. ↑ "He's going to be an NFL fan! Ultrasound shows unborn baby 'Tebowing'". The Daily Mail (London). 3 December 2011. Retrieved 3 December 2011.
  49. ↑ Steinmetz, Katy (9 November 2011). "Wednesday Words: Herman’s ‘Cain-Wreck,’ Male Cleavage and More". TIME. Retrieved 3 December 2011.
  50. ↑ Maske, Mark (2 December 2011). "Tim Tebow’s faith makes for controversial NFL stardom but wins keep mystique alive". The Washington Post. Retrieved 3 December 2011.
  51. ↑ Jones, Lindsay. "The story behind the "Tebowing" craze". Denver Post. Retrieved 3 December 2011.
  52. ↑ Christopher Hunt (December 16, 2011). "High schoolers banned for Tebowing". ESPN New York. Retrieved December 24, 2011.
  53. ↑ Toucher & Rich: Patriots Rob Gronkowski Talks Denver Broncos Defense, 'Gronking' « CBS Boston. Boston.cbslocal.com (2011-12-15). Retrieved on 2012-01-19.
  54. ↑ "Bradying: It's unfortunately sure to catch on". NFL.com. 2012-02-07. Retrieved 2012-07-31.
  55. ↑ "Is Bradying the next pose to sweep the nation?". USA Today. 2012-02-07.
  56. ↑ Klopman, Michael (8 February 2012). "Bradying vs. Tebowing: Tom Brady Pose In Super Bowl Loss Starts Internet Meme (VIDEO)". Huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2012-07-31.
  57. ↑ "Say hello to #Griffining, the NFL's new #Tebowing". NFL.com.
  58. ↑ Steinberg, Dan (16 September 2012). "Stats, scores and schedules". The Washington Post.
  59. ↑ "Griffining is the next Tebowing (PHOTOS)". USA Today. 10 September 2012.
  60. ↑ "‘Kaepernicking’ craze takes off after 49ers win". WGHP. 2013-01-14. Retrieved 2013-01-14.
  61. ↑ Associated Press (2013-01-14). "'Kaepernicking' Is All the Craze After 49ers Win". ABC News. Retrieved 2013-01-14.
  62. ↑ Strauss, Chris (2013-01-14). "'Kaepernicking' gesture rips off World Peace, pro wrestler". USA Today. Retrieved 2013-01-14.
  63. ↑ Sessler, Marc (2013-01-23). "Colin Kaepernick trademarking signature pose name". National Football League. Retrieved 2013-01-23.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Planking and Owling.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, May 06, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.