Planking (fad)

Planking is an activity that consists of lying expressionlessly in a face-down position, sometimes in an unusual or incongruous location. The body is kept straight and rigid, like a wooden plank, typically with the palms of the hands touching the performer's sides. Planking can include lying flat on a flat surface, or holding the body flat while it is supported in only some regions, with the rest suspended in the air.

Teenagers invented planking independently multiple times since the 1980s, with names including face dancing and the lying down game. In the late 2000s, it spread among youth in England and Australia on Facebook, leading to a global internet meme and fad peaking in 2011.

The earliest instance of planking, called "face dancing" by its participants, occurred in 1983 or 1984 in Edmonds, Washington by Scott Amy and Joel Marshall. The two high school age boys were walking in a park when they came upon a baseball game. They spontaneously decided to lie face down in right field to see if anyone would react. The two were left undisturbed through several innings before nonchalantly getting up and leaving.

In 1986, a group of alumni from Amy and Marshall's high school planked at a disco party in Berlin, starting a trend documented with photographs in Der Spiegel. In 1994, Tom Green filmed a prank for The Tom Green Show where he laid on an Ottawa sidewalk in a manner similar to planking. The prank was cut and never aired.

In 1997, two school boys in Taunton, England started lying face-down in public places to amuse themselves and baffle onlookers. Gary Clarkson (then aged 15) and Christian Langdon (then aged 12) called it the "lying down game". As Clarkson put it, "It was just a really stupid, random thing to do." The Lying Down Game remained within Clarkson's and Langdon's circle of friends until 2007, when their friend Daniel Hoppin created a Facebook page for the new trend. Hoppin said, "We began a Facebook group to see who could get the craziest photo."

The term "planking" was coined by Sam Weckert, Darcy McCann and Kym Berry of Adelaide, South Australia: "Planking was a term myself and two other mates came up with in the summer of 2008". 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. After reports of the craze in the British media in 2009, Planking spread to the rest of the world. Worldwide it has also been known as "extreme lying down" (2008, Australasia), "facedowns" (2010, USA and Ireland), and "planking" (2011, Australia, New Zealand and worldwide). In the years following its explosion in popularity, several variations on planking have proliferated, some inspired by the fad, and others that have arisen independently.

Planking has been compared with an earlier fad, "limp falling", popularized by Western Australian cartoonist Paul Rigby and practised at his favorite watering hole, the Palace Hotel, Perth. A Limp Falling Club developed among Perth's arts community.

The popularity of planking generated backlash. Some people disapproved of the more objectionable photos that had circulated, such as a girl planking with her head in a toilet or a woman planking on a stripper pole. Planking in dangerous places also resulted in many injuries and at least one death.