The term "planking" was coined in Australia and the practice
became a fad in
2011.[18]
Planking is described as the practice of lying down flat with arms
to the side, to mimic a wooden plank. It has
its origins in the "lying down game".[19]
Australian National Rugby League player David "Wolfman" Williams planked after
a try during the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles vs Newcastle Knights game on 27 March
2011.[20]
He went on to talk about it on The Footy Show, where Williams
described it as "pretty much, active lying down".[21]
On 13 May 2011, a 20-year-old man from Gladstone in central Queensland was
charged for allegedly planking on a police vehicle.[22]
Popular planking locations include park benches and other public
places. On 15 May 2011, Acton Beale, a 20-year-old man, plunged to
his death after reportedly "planking" on a seventh-floor balcony in
Brisbane,
Australia. Beale became the first known casualty of the planking
fad.[23]
Acton Beale's friends have accused Paul Carran, a New Zealander
living in Sydney who claims to have invented planking in 2008, of
bearing responsibility for Beale's death by promoting
planking.[14]
Australia's Prime Minister, Julia Gillard,
warned plankers that the "focus has to be on keeping yourself safe
first".[24]
The Queensland
Opposition and the state's police have called for people
to stop participating in the fad.[25]
On 18 May 2011, IndyCar
Series driver Scott Dixon
planked on the tires of his race car, prompting fellow racer
Tony Kanaan
and his pit crew to compete with him.[26]
On 19 May 2011, a New Zealand student was caught
planking on the ledge of a secondary-school building in the central
North Island.[27]
On 25 May 2011, a student was caught planking on a railway line, in
front of an oncoming train. Authorities will not reveal in which
part of New
Zealand this occurred, but the student was reportedly
not harmed. This led to some school principals speaking out against
the fad. Numerous students in NSW have
also been caught planking during school time, and reportedly
planking people's cars in driveways and doorways after knocking.
The colloquial term for this behaviour is "Knock 'n' Plank",
related to "Knock 'n'
run".[28]
On 29 May 2011, Max Key, son of New Zealand Prime Minister John Key,
uploaded a photograph to Facebook of himself planking on a lounge
suite, his father standing behind him. After the photograph was
reproduced on the front page of the New Zealand Herald two days
later, the Prime Minister's office initially declined
comment,[29]
but later that day, confirming that the photograph was indeed
genuine, Mr. Key remarked that he doesn't see anything wrong with
planking when done safely, and that it was he who had actually
introduced Max to planking in the first place, having seen a video
of the phenomenon on YouTube.[30]
On 10 June 2011, Sigmar
Guðmundsson, host of the primetime news magazine show
Kastljós on Icelandic
public television channel RÚV, delivered a live introduction
before a commercial break while planking on top of the news
desk.[31][32]
Sigmar performed the stunt immediately following a segment
documenting the recent spread of planking in Iceland.
Source: Wikipedia