Planking

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

Hey!

Just thought I'd like to share this new game in Australia that people call 'Planking'. The game is to simply lie face-down on a surface, and have a photo taken of it. But the trick is to be creative and many people do this in unusual and sometimes dangerous places.

This has gained some media notoriety due to a man being arrested for trying it on a police car, and with a Brisbane man sadly passing away after falling off a balcony railing from 7 stories.

So what do you all think? Is it just some harmless fun or is it just plain ludicrous, and dangerous? '

You can visit this Facebook page for many photos showing people 'planking'. It will probably give you a better idea of what it's all about.

[Cobraroll 138]

Sounds like a great way to clean up the gene pool. If you absolutely want to do it on a train track, it's your own fault if the train slices you in half. The smart guys doing it on their own coffee table, or beside the train tracks for that matter, do not face the same risk (or face the risk to the same degree, if you want).

I only wish the eventual prosecutors understand that it's the victims own stupidity that hurt/killed them. Knowing the world, though, not going to happen.

[Duke87 1,070]

The internet needs to do more with this. It's a perfect meme.

[Merlin of Flyote 8]

Is it called planking because a right idiot, is sometimes known as a plank, or thick as two planks?

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Seems like a deliberate run for a Darwin award.

[hamsterTK 93]

So, for the like, 5 people, who will manage to "plank" themselves on top of a building or something, there's like 5000 people being silly by laying flat on their work desk?

Ohh, scary.

Media must need another "reckless young people doing something" story.

  Edited May 15, 2011 by hamsterTK  

[Meg 368]

There is a difference between "unusual" and "dangerous". Trying it on a balcony railing moves it out of the realm of "harmless fun" and into the realm of "stupid".

Most of the pictures on that facebook page look silly but harmless. My initial reaction: these people must be really bored.

[Terring 6,476]

And the reason of this is... :|

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

There is a difference between "unusual" and "dangerous". Trying it on a balcony railing moves it out of the realm of "harmless fun" and into the realm of "stupid".

Most of the pictures on that facebook page look silly but harmless. My initial reaction: these people must be really bored.

Agreed. Maybe they should join the trend and find a book to read.

[astronelson 339]

Agreed. Maybe they should join the trend and find a book to read.

You mean like this?

That's Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, by the way.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Whoever that is, he seems to have "assumed the position". Jane Austen is sufficient punishment, though.

I'd rather struggle through War and Peace, where you can't tell the players without a program. Took me five years, on and off, to finish it because I kept wondering what happened to ....

The Three Musketeers is more fun, but you don't find out what happens to everyone unless you read Twenty Years After, when you are in for the kill of each of the heroes.

You were warned. Close this if you don't want to know, quick.

Porthos is crushed to death trying to hold up a cave in.

Aramis becomes a Cardinal.

Athos's son, Raoul, inherits his estates when he dies in bed.

D'Artagnan is promoted to Marshall of France and is cut in two by a canon ball just as he receives his baton.

  Edited May 16, 2011 by A Nonny Moose  

[Alejandro24 575]

This is a strange activity. What is the point of Planking?

Certainly, a person of 20 years old died doing planking: http://www.semana.com/vida-moderna/joven-muere-hacer-planking-ultima-obsesion-internet/156806-3.aspx

I've see many pages of Facebook: this makes mi laugh:

Only one person likes the Planking Mexico.

And I still don't understand, and the point of planking is...? Is something like a dog when play possum?

  Edited May 16, 2011 by Alejandro24  

[Meg 368]

And I still don't understand, and the point of planking is...?

It's just the latest fad.

Back in the day, the latest fad was streaking. Some guy would run across a stage or ball field wearing only socks and shoes (and sometimes a ski mask).

The fad died out. Being tackled wasn't a lot of fun.

[astronelson 339]

The fad died out. Being tackled wasn't a lot of fun.

It's still going here for something that died out. Guess we just have the weather for it.

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

The fad died out. Being tackled wasn't a lot of fun.

It's still going here for something that died out. Guess we just have the weather for it.

And the boring cricket matches...

To me, planking has gotten a bit old now that EVERYONE is doing. For me, it has to be creative, and slighly dangerous if I may say so. I've seen a few on the boomgates (level crossing rail barriers). A few of my friends went out and did it, they got some shots on the local 7/11 petrol station sign and on a chimney of a school building.

[sneakeypete 16]

Someone streaked down the road one night last week. Not something you see often here of course.

Its just a thing, like doing skateboard tricks, and there's the moral panick, just like doign skateboard tricks. nothing new really, apart from maybe the way the sport is... "shared" online.

[zahrul3 472]

You could use optical illusions/advanced camera techniques, if your awesomely smart at photography.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

You could use optical illusions/advanced camera techniques, if your awesomely smart at photography.

Bah! If you are any good with the air-brush tool, you can get away with anything in an image manipulator. Public displays of stupidity have always been with us. We had a girl at college who rode naked down the main drag on a horse during Engineering week. Look up the Engineer's Hymn if you don't know why.

Oh, and later she graduated in Civil Engineering.

  Edited May 17, 2011 by A Nonny Moose  

[Barbarossa 51]

.

  Edited September 8, 2012 by Barbarossa  

[Easy Bakes 253]

Hmm will one of these people "plank" on top of the St Louis Arch?

Id pay to see that.

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

Well people have been talking about doing various landmarks, so its not long before someone decides to scale a highrise or do it on top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge... now that'd be a photo.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

I take back my remark on the Darwin awards. This nonsense is not unique enough.