Planking

Why Trust Techopedia

What Does Planking Mean?

Planking is a game where the participant lies face down in unusual locations, keeping the hands along the body and the feet outstretched. When this plank-like position is achieved, a photo is taken and then posted to the Internet. People have been photographed planking in difficult positions and exotic locations.

Advertisements

Planking is also known as the lying down game.

Techopedia Explains Planking

Like many internet memes, the origin of planking is hotly disputed. The term planking was popularized in Australia in 2011, but the actual fad may trace its roots to England. Gary Clarkson and Christian Langdon are believed to have started it as the lying down game. Since spreading over the Internet through social networks, people have taken planking to amusing and sometimes dangerous extremes. A few outlandish examples of planking include the Taj Mahal, an aircraft engine and the Lincoln Memorial.

Planking came to the attention of the mainstream media when an Australian man died after apparently attempting to plank off of a seventh story balcony in 2011.

Advertisements

Related Terms

Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.