What is planking?

Planking (or the Lying Down Game) is an activity consisting of lying face down —sometimes in an unusual or incongruous location. Both hands must touch the sides of the body.Some players compete to find the most unusual and original location in which to play.

The term planking refers to mimicking a wooden plank .

Planking can include lying flat on a flat surface, or holding the body flat while it's supported in only some regions, with other parts of the body suspended. Many participants in planking have photographed the activity in unusual locations and have shared such pictures through social media .



History

The person who claims to be the inventor of this trend is Tom Green in 1994. A hidden camera caught Green lying down on an Ottawa, Ontario, Canada sidewalk without moving. Green is a comedian known for his pranks who was in an MTV show in the 90s. He tells CNN about this video evidence and how it did not air on the show and states it is “a very obscure piece of video.”

Tom tweeted “Just found video of me #planking in 1994. I will post it soon. Let people know. :)” on July 12, 2011.

After becoming popular in North East England , the lying down game spread to the rest of the world, where it has also been known as "playing dead" (2003, South Korea),
"extreme lying down" (2008, Australasia),
"facedowns" (2010, USA and Ireland).

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