While the Internet has since moved on to such awkwardly posed photos as horsemaning, coning, owling, Tebowing or whatever, in Wisconsin you can still get arrested for planking.
Two brothers were charged with disorderly conduct after police came across Facebook photos and a YouTube video of the two on a "planking spree," which included stiff-as-a-board poses atop a memorial monument, a police squad car, a bank ATM machine, and merchandise displays at Walmart and Lowe's stores, " the Smoking Gun reports.
Approached individually by the police, both Alexander Hart, 19, and Ryan Hart, 21, first claimed the photos were Photoshopped before finally fessing up.
Planking, in review, is the apparently super-fun practice of having one's photo snapped while lying board-stiff in an awkward location, for the purpose of uploading that photo to Facebook.
The fad originated in the UK, but blew up big in Australia earlier this year after the Planking page hit Facebook, with countless pictures of Australia's youth planking in the middle of busy sidewalks, balancing atop mail boxes, across the arms of chairs, on bike seats and backs of couches.
Planking went International after Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard warned plankers that their "focus has to be on keeping yourself safe first," following two planking deaths in that country. While there are are no fad-related fatalities widely reported in the United States, it's obviously frowned upon by law enforcement officials — not because it's intrinsically dangerous or criminal or anything. It's just really stupid.
"Municipal Court judge in Manitowoc found Alexander Hart guilty of disorderly conduct on the strength of 'planking' photos that were posted earlier this year to his Facebook page, as well as an incriminating YouTube video," the Smoking Gun reports.
Alexander was fined $303, which is nothing compared to the punitive shame of having one's outdated planking photos surfaced months after their alleged relevency. Here's hoping he hasn't uploaded any photos of himself "horsemaning" on a scared City Hall statue or "Tebowing" in the American Legion parking lot.
Hart's brother Ryan faces his own disorderly conduct trial next week. "Ryan Hart apparently upset cops by lying across a police memorial monument in front of the county jail. An officer compared the act to going to a cemetery and planking atop a gravestone."
More on the annoying way we live now:
- Why 'Community' is the only Internet crossover that matters
- Planking: A Facebook fad to die for?
- Why PayPal's bad reputation is bigger than Regretsy
Helen A.S. Popkin goes blah blah blah about the Internet. Tell her to get a real job on Twitter and/or Facebook. Also, Google+.