No Sag Yet for Planking

Plankinga game where participants lie flat and stiff,with nose and belly to the ground,to emulate of all things a wooden plank,has become a trend

Planking has become the annoying trend that just wont go away.

The viral memewhere participants lie flat and stiff,with nose and belly to the ground,to emulate of all things a wooden plankhas been around for some 25 years. But it seems that celebrities,from Hugh Hefner to the Juno star Ellen Page,are increasingly adopting it as a somewhat mystifyingly popular pastime.

In recent months,Justin Bieber ,Katy Perry and Chris Brown have posted planking images on their Twitter feeds. (Bieber and Perry both did it on yachts),while Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen took planking to a new level on their Web site,StyleMint ,by intercutting images of themselves lying horizontally in scenes from classic Christmas movies like Its a Wonderful Life. (The Olsen twins also demonstrated the technique of owling,the act of crouching and staring like an owl, but thats a whole other phenomenon.)

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Though others have claimed they were the first to discover planking (The Guardian newspaper reported that a pair of North London lads,Gary Clarkson and Christian Langdon,came up with the idea in 1997),the comedian Tom Green insists it all began with him. Ive been lying down on my face for no reason since the mid-80s, Green said.

In 2007,Clarkson and Langdon started a planking Facebook group page under the name The Lying Down Game (110,793 members to date). More followers popped up. On Facebook,the popular

Planking community page,established in 2009,had 730,365 likes as of this month.

Planking,though,has a darker side. In mid-May,a 20-year-old man died in Brisbane,Australia,while trying a plank on a seventh-story balcony at around 4:30 am. This morning we have seen a young man… attempt to plank on a balcony, a local police official told The Brisbane Times. Unfortunately he has tragically fallen to his death. But that death,somewhat ghoulishly,only increased plankings fame. When Rosario Dawson appeared on Jimmy Kimmels show in June,she was a week-old planker. Why start planking? She told Kimmel she saw some images of plankers after reading about the Brisbane death.

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On August 2,the Playboy Bunny Anna Sophia Berglund convinced her new boyfriend,Hugh Hefner,to plank. We were playing cards and I suggested it, said Berglund. Hugh laughed and said Are you serious? But then he said yes. He thought it was the most ridiculous thing in the world.

The media coverage was resounding. E! Online posted an article titled Hugh Hefner: Not Dead,Just Planking. For forever young octogenarians,planking is a low-impact way to keep up with the Bieber nation. As for Berglund,planking has been great for her budding career. I never thought Id get so much attention for planking, she said. She was the first Playmate to plank.

The activity has given a similar boost to Tom Green. Since the comedian released a planking video on July 12,a clip filmed in 1994 of him planking on a public street,hes been interviewed by CNN and TMZ. Its a whole new audience, Green said. Its sort of cool that all these guerrilla pieces are circulating on YouTube now.

Now both celebrities and media outlets,two groups keen on declaring trends,are scrambling to predict the next big thing. On August 15,the Drudge Reports Twitter page linked to an International Business Times article with the declaration: Out: Planking; In: Horsemaning. Inspired by the headless horseman of lore,horsemaning requires at least two participants: one serves as the severed head,while the other positions his or her body so that it appears decapitated.

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According to Berglund,planking has longer-lasting appeal for the very fact that its weird,but not too weird. I havent done any of the other ones, she said. Well,for one,owling looks like someone is doing their business in public. Planking is simple,but funny. I planked just two days ago. BEE-SHYUAN CHANG