Owling

Added by Don • Updated 3 months ago by Y F

Category: Meme Status: Confirmed Year: 2011 Origin: Reddit Region:

Type: Participatory Media

Tags: planking reddit photo fad notables of 2011

Additional References: Urban Dictionary

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Indian Owling .. we did it before it was cool

About • Origin • Spread • Examples •

Category: Meme Status: Confirmed Year: 2011 Origin: Reddit Region:

Type: Participatory Media

Tags: planking reddit photo fad notables of 2011

Additional References: Urban Dictionary

About

Owling refers to the act of sitting in a perched position while looking off into the distance as to mimic the posture of an owl. The fad was created as a response to another photo fad called "planking".

Origin

A thread was posted to Reddit^[1] on July 11th, 2011, entitled "Seems to be an increase in planking photos, so…" featuring a demotivational stye image macro of a woman perched on railing with the caption "OWLING because planking is so two months ago".

OWLING Because Planking Is So Two Months Ago

Spread

On July 12th, 2011, the story was posted on Salon^[2], HuffPo Urlesque^[9], NowPublic^[4]. and BuzzFeed^[5], even spawning a few user-generated images on Tumblr^[6] and Reddit.^[7]

The first Urban Dictionary^[8] definition was created the same day:

The act of displaying oneself on-top of miscellaneous objects in a sitting position while holding your knees. Let's go owling tonight on-top of signs!