Gangnam Style

I guess if you’re going to have a list about stuff you never thought getting big actually becoming super massive and include Robin Thicke then you’re going to have to include the biggest worldwide smash from the year before too, aren’t you? Actually scratch that, we might as well call this what it is – the biggest ever video on YouTube. Let that sink in for a minute, and maybe watch it again to let it really sink in for a minute.

Seriously, how in God’s name did this become so huge that Psy pretty much became a household name and ended up duelling with everyone from Madonna to Snoop Doog (that’s quite some range) and spawning about a million horrible rip off videos like Spartan High School Style ? Admittedly Psy was already a huge superstar in his native South Korea but how did the rest of the world get so turned onto this stupid video and stupid song?

Sure, it’s insanely catchy but then so are a bunch of Justin Bieber songs (he could definitely go in this list too of course, but then about a thousand people would moan that we’re talking about him again so I figured it wasn’t worth it) and sure it’s insanely stupid with that dumb dance and all the other dumb stuff that happens in the video but then again what video on the internet doesn’t have a bunch of insanely dumb stuff going on it? There pretty much isn’t one.

I’m guessing it was probably the fact that it was the perfect combination of all of those things that managed to turn Gangnam Style into the legendary viral hit that it has become, but who from the Western world would have been able to predict that if they were perusing K-Pop and happened to stumble across Psy’s back catalogue? I don’t know for sure but I can say with some confidence that I’m sure all of his other songs are as stupidly catchy and as just plain stupid as this, what made this one so special and continues to make it so special?

OK, I guess it was probably just the dance moves right?

Interestingly, again when I was researching this article I made another momentous discovery and that is that today actually marks the two year anniversary of Gangnam Style. As if that trash has been polluting the world for two whole years now. What’s worse is that is doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. Unlike Robin Thicke, the fact that Psy just released a song with Snoop Dogg indicates that he might be around for a while longer although it does seem almost impossible that he will ever top the behemoth of Gangnam Style.

Planking

Remember when anyone who was anyone was doing this? In case you forgot, according to its WikiPedia entry planking was ‘activity consisting of lying face down–sometimes in an unusual or incongruous location. Both hands must touch the sides of the body. Some players compete to find the most unusual and original location in which to play. The term planking refers to mimicking a wooden plank’.

So there you have it. Make sure you don’t confuse it with the plank which is actually quite a useful exercise, although if you took pictures of yourself doing it somewhere dumb it could easily be confused with actual planking. You would probably get a bunch of idiots calling you out about your ‘planking technique’ in the comments on your photographs though, because let’s face it that just isn’t correct and if you think you’re getting away with it then you’ve got another thing coming.

Surprisingly, it was actually Tom Green who invented planking back in 1994 when he lay down in the middle of a pavement in Ottawa and didn’t move for a while in a typically eccentric and stupid Tom Green prank. This didn’t take off and wasn’t even included in the show that he filmed it for because it was so shit. Given how shit most of Tom Green’s comedy is, it’s really saying something that it wasn’t included in the show and it’s really saying something that he couldn’t predict that it would become a massive fad almost 20 years later. I guess that’s why he isn’t really doing anything at the moment too.

The dubious honour of bringing planking to the masses belonged to a pair of lads from Taunton named Gary Clarkson and Christian Langdon, who started doing it when they were bored at school in 1997 to freak people out. They were only 15 and 12 respectively at the time (kinda weird for a 15 year old to be hanging out with a 12 year old huh?) but the game – which they lovingly and originally referred to as ‘The Lying Down Game’ – only managed to take off ten years alter when one of their friends decided to make a Facebook page for it.

Some dude from Australia coined the term planking and from then on everyone’s news feeds were cursed with pictures of this hilarity for a couple of years before thankfully out of nowhere they disappeared almost as quickly as they had begun, thank God. It also led to the start of a bunch of similar crazes that were even lamer, like batmanning, breading and milking which were all as cringeworthy as each other.I think everyone can safely say that they’re glad that this one has bit the dust because man did it suck.

Although it must be commented that the ‘creators’ of The Lying Down Game must have thought that it was so really hilarious and awesome in order to keep it up for ten whole years amongst their friends before the smart one amongst them decided to make a Facebook page to try and promote it to the masses, it still doesn’t seem like it had a leg to stand on (no pun intended) in terms of its ability to become a worldwide sensation. The biggest indicator like I said before though is the fact that not even Tom Green – the originator of dumb shit like this – wanted to use it in one of his shitty TV shows. Who knows, maybe if he had none of this would ever happened? Whatever happened though, at least it’s over now.

I should really end this part of this article with some pictures of people planking but I really can’t bring myself to do it because it isn’t 2012 anymore and I figure that if I did stick up a collection here then it might help facilitate the return of planking, and I’m pretty sure that nobody in their right mind would want that to happen.