The Interactives

Planking:

Planking involves taking a picture of yourself laying flat on your stomach with your arms against your body and basically mimic a plank. Planking is performed in unusual places where the most dedicated perform Planking in dangerous locations. The idea is to take a picture of the Planking and share it on the web. The trend started in Australia, and quickly spread with the help of Facebook and other social media. There is a set of rules for planking:

1. You must always lay with your face down. Make sure your face is free of expressions.

2. Your legs must be straight and together, and your toes need to be pointed.

3. Your arms must be kept straight, and by your side.

4. You must let it be known that you are doing a plank. That will secure a good result.

5. Your safety must always be evaluated. Never put your self or others in danger by taking to big of a risk.

6. Each planking-photo must have a name.

Planking can be divided in to groups:

1. Fun planking: planking in fun, unusual places.

2. Extreme planking: planking in dangerous places.

Planking in the news:

Planking has appeared several times in the news. Here is a list of some of them:

September 2009: seven doctors and nurses were suspended from their work, after planking while they were at work.

13 May 2011: a 20-year-old man from Gladstone was charged for allegedly planking on a police vehicle.

15 May 2011: a 20-year-old man, Acton Beale, died after planking on a balcony in Brisbane, Australia.

29 May 2011: the son of the New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, Max Key, took a picture of him self, planking, while his father was standing behind him.

2 Aug 2011: Anna Sophia Berglund (Playboy) took a picture of Hugh Hefner while he was planking, and posted it on Twitter.

2 September 2011: Dwight Howard and about 100 of his fans planked in Beijing, China.

The story of “Planking”:

”Planking” is one of this years biggest internet mëme or amusements.

The official facebook page ”planking, the original” has reached 712,689 members, and the official internet page ” http://www.planking.me/” has 91 different planking-categories; containing an unknown number of pictures from different countries, states in the US and with different themes.

Although ”Planking” seems like a new form of amusement, a quick research on the web proves it wrong: ”Planking” (or the exact same concept) can be traced back to the well known Canadian comedian, actor, rapper etc Tom Green, in the year 1990. 21 years from now! His first perform of planking appears on a video of him and some friends in their younger days:

Green himself claims that he is the founder of planking, proven by another video of him planking in a busy 1994:

Three years later, in 1997, two teenage boys, Gary Clarkson and Christian Langden started ”lying down ” on places and things out of boredom.

The trend of ”the lying down game” spread in their neighbourhood and to schools nearby. Ten years later, in 2007, they created a facebookpage for their game. The interest was overwhelming: People from all over the world posted pictures of themself ”Planking”!

The popularity of "Planking":

The popularity of Planking was rather small initially, but has expanded enormously during the spring and summer. According to Google Insight the interest for Planking exploded in April 2011. The popularity in “early adopter” countries reached its highlight in May 2011 before it suddenly dropped tremendously in June. “Follower” countries reached its highlight in June and at the same time Planking picked up in the United States and reached its highlight in July. The overall interest for Planking was greatest in July. Paraguay, Philippines and Australia are according to Google Insights the top three countries that showed the greatest interest in planking. The meme is like other online fashions, they first become popular for the fun of it and then evolves into a game where everyone can participate. Over a period of five months Planking had exploded, reached its highlight and are at this point fading out. The Daily Mail online paper claimed on the other hand that Planking died after Gordon Ramsey planked on the back of a boat in June.

Other memes that emerged from "Planking":

Like many other internet phenomenons, Planking expired after a while, but other similar fads has emerged from it. Batmaning, Leisure diving and horsemaning are some of them.

Batmaning

Batmaning is similar to planking, but in an inverted position. You hang upside down like a bat with your feet flexed on top of an object. Unlike Leisure diving and horsemaning, batmaning can be much more dangerous. Like with planking people are challenging eachother by dong this in insecure and risky places.

Leisure Diving

This summer a new internet phenomenon emerged from “planking” called “Leisure diving”. A leisure dive is when a person jumps into a pool, striking a leisure pose. The point it is that the photographer capture the moment were the person is parallel with the water, “chill and let dive”.

Horsemaning

The most popular fad after “Planking” is probably the trend where two people are posing so that they appear to be a single body with a detached head. It is called “Horsemanning” and was a popular trend in the 1920’s. The name comes from the “Headless horseman” from Sleepy Hollow. If horsemanning is done correctly it can create an extremely funny optical illusion that can be done in more creative ways than planking.

Bert is evil:

It seems appropriate to pick “Bert is Evil” as a noteworthy meme because it is arguable that this particular meme was innovative and unique in its time. On Old Wide Web, a podcast dissects the history of Bert is Evil and explains that this meme was one of the first big online hits. This particular meme is incredibly hilarious as it distorts the image of a beloved character Bert from Sesame Street. Obviously, American society has come to know Bert as a children’s character, and with this comes the association of Bert embodying innocence, naivety, and chivalrous like qualities. This meme began its trek towards becoming an epic phenomenon as a website. Dino Ignacio grew up watching Sesame Street and stated in an interview that “I thought it was funny that the character was so angry. I just kept asking myself why is he so angry? I decided to write about it.” Ignacio decided to do so in the summer of 1996 on his website “Bert is Evil.” He won a Webby Award and a People’s Voice Award for best weird website in 1998 and consequently his audience increased rapidly. Initially, bloggers and critics of the website only acknowledged how “wacky” the website was because the internet was such a new sensation at the time Bert is Evil arose. However, Old Wide Web explains that in 2001 these fluff pieces transformed to hard news when Bert is Evil was seen next to Osama Bin Laden at an anti-American rally in Bangladesh.

Originally, no 90s pop-culture figure was off limits to Bert is Evil. Michael Jackson and OJ Simpson are two examples of figures attached to evil Bert. Mirror websites popped up: things like Pinky and the Brain or other characters meant for child audiences had been ironically distorted and photoshopped to be seemingly evil. By attaching these wholesome characters to evil figures in our American culture, the ironic humor makes them huge successes. On October 11th 2001, Ignacio took down the site and employed all fans to stop spreading it. However with archives and dozens of mirror websites it was easy to find Evil Bert. A quick google search is all it takes today.

One prominent example of a mirrored Bert is Evil is “Lovable Terrorist Gitmo” on the Daily Show. This segment features Gitmo as a reporter for things like being in a jail cell. Because the writers of the Daily Show knocked off the ironic twist of turning an innocent child’s character into a terrorist they owe a nod to Bert is Evil.

The reason Bert is Evil was novel in its time is because websites in the 90s that were humor-based were mostly just long lists of jokes; blonde jokes, dirty jokes, ethnic jokes. The type of humor Bert is Evil proposed to the internet was sarcastic and photoshopped which was incredibly new. While the web was growing around the time that Bert is Evil first appeared, and the character providing instant recognition by American society, and thus the wow-factor of photoshopping images all contributed to the success of Bert is Evil.

However successful, some would argue that Bert is Evil caused mayhem because of the printed posters at an Anti-American rally. The Bert with Bin Laden picture was in fact created on a mirror site of Bert is Evil. On October 5th and 9th, according to “http://www.pinktink3.250x.com/hmm/bert.htm#”, images of Osama and Bert were printed on posters used by American hating society of Dhaka. There were rumors that the picture of the posters with the rioters was itself photoshopped to feature Bert. But that was proven false when Jack Stokes the Associated Press spokesman stated, “The photographer [Bangladeshi Rahman] is as bemused as we are," Felicia Cosby has said. "He didn't know what that furry creature was.” Millions of others, however, are only too gleefully aware” (http://www.pinktink3.250x.com/hmm/bert.htm#). These posters only continued the humor- that Bert was participating in this rally as an evil Osama Bin Laden follower (in regards to American culture at least).

Works Cited:

1. "Bert Is Evil." Everything Else. Web. 20 Sept. 2011. <http://www.pinktink3.250x.com/hmm/bert.htm>.

2."Bert Is Evil « Old Wide Web - Internet History Dissected and Explained." Home « Old Wide Web - Internet History Dissected and Explained. Web. 19 Sept. 2011. <http://oldwideweb.org/tag/bert-is-evil-2/>.