UPDATED: Planking WTF

UPDATE: After the first death as a result of planking, and another man in a coma, Charles Purcell had this to say about the ‘epidemic’ in the Sydney Morning Herald:

“Every so often someone dreams up some foolish new craze. A few years ago “ghost riding”, or putting a car in gear, letting it roll and then riding on the roof and hood, became popular. And once again there were deaths.

Children and teenagers are particularly vulnerable to this risk-taking type of behaviour. Add in the role of social media, where clips showing people engaging in “planking” or “ghost riding” or “happy slapping” are seen by millions, and such trends can spread like wildfire around the globe. It is another factor in the Jackass-ification of our young people. “You want me to tie a flaming sparkler to my naked backside so you can film it and show my howling pain on YouTube? Sure. Let’s do it!”

But back to planking. The democratic rights of people to act like buffoons can only be engaged so far. There seems to be little that is socially redeeming in planking.”

UPDATE: What is thought to be Australia’s first planking death has occurred in Queensland. According to The Courier Mail:

Acton Beale, 20, of Kangaroo Point, slipped when he tried to plank on a 5cm wide balcony railing outside his front door falling seven storeys from a Brisbane unit block.

By 8am this morning the Planking Australia Facebook page had more than 85,000 followers and was growing by the hour. New planking pages were opened in Ireland, the United Kingdom and Norway, while the trend is also attracting a huge amount of interest in the United States.

Planking is the latest craze to hit the Internet and it’s a doozy. All over the world, people are lying face-down on objects, with their heads down and arms by their sides, trying to look as plank-ish as possible. It’s like flashmobbing but….just with one person, no dancing and laying really still.

So it’s nothing like flashmobbing at all.

If it wasn’t enough to be immortalised as a guinea pig on Chris Lilley’s Angry Boys earlier this week,  Kerri-Anne has cemented her place as a pop cultural icon by opening her show this morning while planking. Naturally, police are concerned.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoCON4LfFs8&feature=player_embedded

The Courier Mail reports…

Police say the latest internet craze “planking” isn’t illegal but have warned enthusiasts against lying across public or private property in case they are charged with trespass.

Online communities have sprung up espousing the benefits of planking, and egging people on to share their peculiar plank-related antics with one another.

You can go here to read the full article.

Check out our planking gallery below…