Me, the MT and Today's Plankers

With the death of a 20 year old in Brisbane last week Planking was thrust into the public eye and was soon at fever pitch. At the end of the week planking had resulted in the sacking or discipline of workers from Santos, Woolworth's and MacDonald's and a Facebook page with 100,000 followers.

Welcome to the world of planking the rules are simple:

Lie face down.

Palms flat against your sides.

Feet together and pointing at the floor.

You must, of course, have somebody take a photo. Without a photo, you're just a jerk that has been somewhere stupid or famous.

Planking has been going on for quite some time now. I have a friend that backpacked through India many years ago and spent a night with Mother Teresa and a group of locals. It turns out Mother Teressa was an incredibly planker. Apparently she was so small and stiff she could be wedged almost anywhere. By the end of the night she would invariably find herself in the most precarious positions and would fill the room with a compulsive laughter.

Likewise, I too am an old skooler when it comes to planking. Like the MT around my neighborhood we had our own rules and equipment. Quite simple really a 1/2 carton of beer, a couch & remote or footpath and gutter. Now I fear my planking days are numbered, with the arrival of a new young era of competitor and an ever increasing range of performance enhancing beers.

The major difference between us 'old skoolers' and today's competitor being the rule change that saw the need for photo’s. Previously we worked on the honour system, or at a pinch relied on police stills from CCTV prevalent in entertainment precincts.

Recently I noticed a disturbing new trend as the sport catches on with family pets. Having returned from the vets I found our cat planking with her head in her food bowl, though with no photo she is just a jerk.

In summary, for a person that grew up, graduating high school in the mid 80's planking seems like a tame activity. When I was young the bad kids were all smoking, doing drugs, stealing cars and working on advancing their life of crime. Now with the bad kids lying still and pretending to be wood.. they should be a lot easier to catch…..