By now, everyone short of owning a kabambe phone with GPRS and has a facebook account (at least) knows what planking is. For those residing beneath rock faces, I can describe it as the awkward act of lying down awkwardly in awkward positions on equally awkward locations, then having somebody else take pictures as visual evidence of your awkward behaviour for later presentation to those who did not witness your awkwardness via social networks. And the fad has attacked the internet like the Y2K that never was. It has earned some tweeps 100,000+ followers, just like that! Amazing, huh? Women be laying themselves down by the thousands, you’d think it prevents breast cancer. Men be kissing the streets you’d expect their penile size would have doubled once they rise (pun intended). Anyway…
As for my planking virginity, I shamefully disclose that it remains intact, because I still do not understand WHY I should plank. I’m a firm believer of asking why ever since the Enron execs begged the world to do so to deaf ears before The Most Admired Company in the World at one point went to colossal shit. I just don’t understand planking, what is all that about?
Since it is one of those mass movements that involving in someone’s body laid awkwardly somewhere, I’m tempted to compare it with mob justice. However, mob justice is a movement that ends in a number of human beings losing their lives – planking really picked up after some folks in Australia died after setting themselves up for an awkward fall thus death was but a beginning for this craze. The motivation for those who mete out mob justice (or even lynching of black people in the Deep South back in the day) is the feeling that they have contributed to the well being of society in some way or the other. Planking on the other hand, does not bring with it this sense of purpose and eventual satisfaction.
Others say planking is street art. If you ask them how, it just draws more and more blanks. I think art must also have motive, at least from the point of view of the artist him/herself even if the rest of the world ends up not understanding that motive. The motivation for planking today is usually to participate in the trending topic of the moment, one of the unspoken rules of social networks, in essence beating the fundamental logic of street art being a public show of non-conformity. Planking is a public display of conformity with the norms of the virtual society in which we spend more time in than real, physical tangible society – just another Milgram-type experiment.
The debate surrounding the origins of planking has also precipitated some very interesting points of view. Others are convinced that the roots of planking lie in the slave trade between Africa and the New World where the slaves were laid awkwardly in slave ships to enable more slaves to be ‘packed’ and sufficiently chained. To this school of thought, the act of planking (especially by African-Americans) has insulting, even racial connotations. Another school of thought trace the fad to an old European game while others insist it sprung from awkward Australians in 1997. What I have found extremely interesting is Wikipedia’s apparent inability to bring an end to this debate, further proof that wikis should never be assumed to be the final word on anything.
The most convincing argument for planking I have heard so far ends at: “It’s funny.” Yeah, funny… Even though I can laugh at almost anything, the extreme awkwardness of planking just gets me wondering and worrying more than laughing. I know social networks require a relaxed-er sense of humour but as the kind lady in the Brookside ad says, the funny cow “has refused”. I still don’t get the punchline, sorry. Planking has become our century’s Black Dahlia – a corpse abandoned awkwardly, a lot of people claiming responsibility with no obvious motive, a lot of suspects, a lot of theories and of course, a lot of media coverage. An unsolved mystery.
And there’s more where planking came from – just like the hundreds of crunk dancing styles that got people muttering under their breath “I hope the song came before the dance” - more and more awkward-position fads are coming up. Last week, I heard it was all about Owling (awkwardly perching on something like a bird) and this week, someone was all excited by something called Pumping. I was afraid to even ask what that was about.
As for my planking virginity, I shamefully disclose that it remains intact, because I still do not understand WHY I should plank. I’m a firm believer of asking why ever since the Enron execs begged the world to do so to deaf ears before The Most Admired Company in the World at one point went to colossal shit. I just don’t understand planking, what is all that about?
Since it is one of those mass movements that involving in someone’s body laid awkwardly somewhere, I’m tempted to compare it with mob justice. However, mob justice is a movement that ends in a number of human beings losing their lives – planking really picked up after some folks in Australia died after setting themselves up for an awkward fall thus death was but a beginning for this craze. The motivation for those who mete out mob justice (or even lynching of black people in the Deep South back in the day) is the feeling that they have contributed to the well being of society in some way or the other. Planking on the other hand, does not bring with it this sense of purpose and eventual satisfaction.
Others say planking is street art. If you ask them how, it just draws more and more blanks. I think art must also have motive, at least from the point of view of the artist him/herself even if the rest of the world ends up not understanding that motive. The motivation for planking today is usually to participate in the trending topic of the moment, one of the unspoken rules of social networks, in essence beating the fundamental logic of street art being a public show of non-conformity. Planking is a public display of conformity with the norms of the virtual society in which we spend more time in than real, physical tangible society – just another Milgram-type experiment.
The debate surrounding the origins of planking has also precipitated some very interesting points of view. Others are convinced that the roots of planking lie in the slave trade between Africa and the New World where the slaves were laid awkwardly in slave ships to enable more slaves to be ‘packed’ and sufficiently chained. To this school of thought, the act of planking (especially by African-Americans) has insulting, even racial connotations. Another school of thought trace the fad to an old European game while others insist it sprung from awkward Australians in 1997. What I have found extremely interesting is Wikipedia’s apparent inability to bring an end to this debate, further proof that wikis should never be assumed to be the final word on anything.
The most convincing argument for planking I have heard so far ends at: “It’s funny.” Yeah, funny… Even though I can laugh at almost anything, the extreme awkwardness of planking just gets me wondering and worrying more than laughing. I know social networks require a relaxed-er sense of humour but as the kind lady in the Brookside ad says, the funny cow “has refused”. I still don’t get the punchline, sorry. Planking has become our century’s Black Dahlia – a corpse abandoned awkwardly, a lot of people claiming responsibility with no obvious motive, a lot of suspects, a lot of theories and of course, a lot of media coverage. An unsolved mystery.
And there’s more where planking came from – just like the hundreds of crunk dancing styles that got people muttering under their breath “I hope the song came before the dance” - more and more awkward-position fads are coming up. Last week, I heard it was all about Owling (awkwardly perching on something like a bird) and this week, someone was all excited by something called Pumping. I was afraid to even ask what that was about.
0 Retakes:
Post a Comment
What's Your Take? Grab the Mic!