“Planking” in Australia

I was surprised a couple weeks ago when my 13 year old son Gabriel came bounding into my office, dove onto my couch and just laid there face down pinning his arms flush against his side with his feet pointed out.

“Do you know what I’m doing Papa?” he asked.

A few thoughts came to mind but I held my tongue and said, “Nope.”

“Its called planking…and everyone is doing it.”

Now when teenagers say “everyone” obviously a few qualifiers come to mind.  Does “everyone” mean:

* your geeky friends
* your class
* your school
* 13 year olds in general across the universe

I mean is the Dahli Lamma doing it?  Is Betty White planking now? 

Turns out my 44 year old social circles just aren’t “with it” anymore as apparently everyone  is planking.  And do you know where planking is REALLY popular?…

Australia

Yep, the Land Down Under which gave us other notable cultural curiosities like Crocodile Dundee, Yahoo Serious, Shrimps on a Barbie and Aussie Rules Football is now out on the cutting edge of relevance with this new export to the world…Planking!

Apparently the idea is not only to “assume the position” but to do it in the most creative and public place possible, get a picture of it and then post it to Facebook.  It seems there are contests with people trying to outdo the “plank” of a friend or co-worker.

Anyhow, I may have to give the “plank” craze a miss but when I saw the Youtube clip I have included, I had to give it a post.