Umm, We Need To Discuss WTF Was Up With Planking?

There’s no denying that planking was one of the loosest trends to ever hit the human race.

The premise? Simple. You lie face down, arms tight against your body with your palms touching your sides. Keep your toes pointed and have your feet lying parallel to the ground. Now, put yourself in some ludicrous location, snap a pic, and you my friend, are a planker.

The origins of planking probably go back many decades. I’m sure Queen Elizabeth would often be caught chucking a sneaky plank on top of the Royal Guard. Fast forward to 2011, the uncomfortable pose blew up, and soon became one of the most viral trends to ever hit Aussie shores.

So, why is it called ‘planking’? Well, think about it, you are literally mimicking a wooden plank, aka: a piece of fucking wood. And in news that surprises no one, the term was coined by two Aussie blokes from South Australia, who apparently had nothing else to do with their time but make a Facebook group and upload pics of themselves ‘planking’, as they called it.

Soon after the Aussie media picked it up, then the British joined in, and eventually it became a worldwide phenomenon.

Via BestFunnies

People went all out with planking, doing it in places where the only sane reaction would be ‘…wtf?’. On Macca’s counters, across the top of bathroom stalls, staircases, famous landmarks, literally any place that would induce acne should you choose to lay your face on it.

Some of it was cute and fairly harmless:

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Some of it was questionable:

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And some of it was just downright cooked:

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The Prime Minister at the time, Julia Gillard, was even asked what she thought about the fad, replying: “There’s a difference between a harmless bit of fun that’s done somewhere that’s really safe and taking a risk with your life. Everybody likes a bit of fun, but the focus has to be on keeping yourself safe first.”

She of course, was referring to some of the more dangerous planking stunts being done such as on balcony railings, cliff edges, and plummeting heights.

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The weirdest was when 20-year-old Nate Shaw was arrested for being caught planking on top of a police car. Like, not damaging it, not disrespecting it, not defecating on it, just…laying on it. Dafuq?

Via Sharenator.com

Anyway, I think we can all agree that this trend was so…random.

Did we need it? No. But am I still a little obsessed with it? You bet.