What is Planking

Trends and crazes come and go. They range from slightly normal to idiosyncratic. The most recent trend came via Rebecca Black whose hit song "Friday" went viral in weeks and was declared the worst song of all time. As the popularity of the song grew so did people's interests; covers and parodies of the song were uploaded daily onto youtube. The "Friday" madness has now died down but the planking craze is now taking its place. Planking, if you have not heard already is the new craze that has been seen all around the world. It is a game that is noted as having its origins in Australia. This game has been embraced by many different individuals all over the United States.

How do you plank?

The game is rather simple; you lie down on any surface in a horizontal position, and place your arms by your side and align your head and chin with the rest of your body. Your body must be perfectly aligned and still. Once you get into position you have someone take a snap shot and share it online with friends and family.

The idea here is to plank in the most unusual of places. Some people have planked on top of; refrigerators, store signs, counter tops in restaurants, traffic lights, railroad tracks, cars and fire hydrants. The list goes on and on. A quick youtube search will reveal a series of interesting planks. It seems as though the planks are becoming more dangerous over time as individuals try to aim for shock value so that their video has a better chance of going viral.

What's the point?

That's just it there is no point other than using creativity to have simple, foolish fun. Kids as young as 6 and adults as old as 56 are engaging in the planking craze. Pets are even engaging in planking.

What's the controversy?

There is little controversy floating around stating that planking actually has its origins in slavery (middle passage) where Europeans captured slaves from Africa and stored them inside a massive ship to transport them to the New World. The slaves were arranged in a similar position as seen in these planking videos. The slaves were arranged in this order so that the Europeans could fit as many slaves as they could inside of the ship to be sold to buyers. It is not known whether this game was inspired by planking in slavery.

Is it dangerous?

Planking itself isn't dangerous. It is the people behind planking that make it dangerous. The people choose the spots to plank and sometimes these spots do not make the best of places to plank. Recently, a twenty year old man from Australia fell 7 stories to his death when trying to plank on a railing outside of his balcony. The young man did not survive his injuries. One of the newest videos on youtube shows a young woman attempting to plank on the stove. The refrigerator topples on top of her but she makes it out okay. Another new planking video shows a pregnant woman planking in various places visibly placing herself and child at harm.

Remember the whole concept of planking is to make it outlandish so people are battling each other for the most outlandish plank and in the process putting themselves in harm's way. You can plank without harm on your couch, on the lawn, or the sandy beach. You do not have to place yourself in harm's way. You may want to reconsider planking while inebriated as this can prove potentially fatal.