10 Crazy Alternatives to the Planking Fad

Planking is a silly fad where people lay face down with their arms at their sides like a wooden plank in strange and unusual places. They then post the picture of themselves planking on the internet. The object of the game seems to be finding the most unusual place to plank, but there doesn’t appear to be any point system or anyone keeping score. Also known as the lying down game, this fad is not without risks. People have been arrested, injured and even killed in attempts to outdo themselves or each other. If planking isn’t appealing to you, or if you’ve already tried it and want to try something different, here are 10 crazy alternatives to the planking fad.

1. Chairing – Since planking looks terribly uncomfortable, chairing might be a better idea. The idea of this fad would be to sit on a chair in bizarre and unusual places like up in a tree. However, this could get quite dangerous in extreme situations.
2. Cordwooding – This would be a group effort where people would lay stacked up like cordwood. The objective of cordwooding would be to get the most people in one stack, but may be a rather unpleasant experience for the ones at the bottom.
3. Chainlinking – Another group variation would be to form a human chain across a great distance. Unusual or complex landscapes would add difficulty to the chainlinking fad, plus using variations of the linking postures.
4. Bridging – Instead of planking, bridging would be an alternative fad to try. This would be achieved by placing your head or upper body on one object and your feet on another thus forming a bridge. Bridging incongruous objects would ad interest to the photos.
5. Posting – Forming a human post could be the next fad to sweep the internet. Posting would be accomplished by standing straight while possibly holding up another object or person. This could be done alone or with other people to form fence posts.
6. Starring – This variation would be achieved by forming a human star shape either alone or with others. The difficulty of starring would be in finding areas where you would be able to get an aerial photo of the various intricate star shapes.
7. Gargoyling – Another crazy alternative to planking would be pretending to be a gargoyle. These are grotesque human or animal forms placed on the edge of roofs an often used as water drainage spouts. The challenge for gargoyling would be to show the water spurting from your mouth in the photo.
8. Teapotting – One variation of planking that hasn’t really caught on is teapotting. This is where someone forms the shape of a teapot with their arms as in the children’s song. Some teachers tried starting this fad with their students.
9. Owling – Another alternative to the planking fad is owling. In this variation people squat like an owl in unusual places and it’s had a little more success catching on than teapotting.
10. Horsemaning – This crazy pose involves two people that give the illusion of a beheaded person. The name comes from the headless horseman in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” story and has been going on since the 1920’s. Modern digital photography makes horsemaning much less difficult to achieve the desired effect.

Some of the unusual places used in planking are on top of a MacDonalds arch, in the middle of a soccer field and on the Taj Mahal. Although all these fads can be fairly innocuous, they clearly show a society with far too much idle time on their hands. If you’re so bored that you need to spend your time taking silly pictures of yourself in strange poses in odd places, you may want to have some serious reflection on your lifestyle and priorities. Perhaps your time would be better spent volunteering for a charity or helping an elderly neighbor with household chores.

Taken From Nondiet