The end of 'planking'...here comes 'owling'

The bizarre internet craze of ‘planking’ is set to lose its cult online status to the increasingly popular trend of ‘owling’...

Extra kudos is earned for those who do it in unusual situations

It consists of nothing more taxing than crouching on one's haunches and staring into the middle distance, like an owl.

A young woman perches on a shelf at her house

Hundreds of young people in America, Australia and now, Britain, have taken up the new ‘owling’ craze.


Participants then take photos of themselves and post them on Facebook or on other social networking sites.
Extra kudos is earned for those who do it in unusual situations.

Make like an owl

The trend is a development of the popular craze of ‘planking’ in which people would take pictures of themselves lying face down in strange locations.


However, in recent months ‘planking’ has become increasingly mainstream - and thus less popular on the trend-conscious internet.


Last month the celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay - notorious for swearing, posted pictures of himself planking - a development that prompted trend-watchers to declare the craze ‘officially dead’.

Gordon Ramsay posted up a picture on his Twitter of himself trying out the latest internet craze of planking

‘Owling’ is believed to have started in Australia within the last few weeks.
Indeed, it is so new that the Wikipedia entry for ‘owling’ describes the practice as being a term used in the Middle Ages to describe the ‘the smuggling of sheep or wool from England to another country’.

Despite its relative youth, the owling craze already has two popular Facebook groups dedicated to it, onto which more than 1,000 people are listed as members.
Other social websites including Reddit also feature pictures of young people taking part in the craze.

The trendspotting site Buzzfeed has described ‘owling’ as a ‘worthy successor’ to planking.


Earlier this year an Australian man Acton Beale died while trying to ‘plank’ from a set of railings on a balcony in Brisbane.


Afterwards Deputy Police Commissioner Ross Barnett confirmed reports that the 20-year-old ‘may have fallen while attempting a planking episode’.

Owling in unusual situation

The new fad.

Is this owling as well? LOL...just 'lepak' only...