Planking a Dangerous Prank?

A couple of years ago, I wrote an article about something called "Parkour," a kind of athletic endeavor in which the participant runs through a series of obstacles, usually in a city, performing tricks like handstands, flips, running up the side of a building, or jumping from balcony to balcony. What made this even more interesting was that the participants were taped while performing, and the show was then uploaded to YouTube and other Internet venues.

The latest craze along these lines is something called "Planking," no doubt a play on "prank" along with "plank," as in a piece of wood.

In this particular game, the participant(s) lay stiffly (like a plank) in/on/under something unusual - on top of a woodburning stove, between the up-and-down rails of an escalator (in effect spinning the planker), or suspended above two camels. The goofier and (unfortunately) more dangerous the stunt, the more attention it's likely to generate.

The bad news is that a 20-year-old from Brisbane, Australia, recently fell to his death while planking on a 7th story balcony.

The notion of doing something silly, slightly difficult and slightly dangerous is nothing new - at the beginning of the 20th century, people thought it was fun to sit on a pole on a tiny platform for as long as the pole-sitter could stand it. The major difference, of course, is that between cell phones with cameras and the internet, such fads catch on more quickly, and are participated in more avidly, than ever before.

We can only wonder what's next?

Comments

Popular Posts