Brandon Fisher planked a fencepost this summer. Gerry Ortiz, the trunk of a car. Laura Ostrowski, the top of a refrigerator.

Planking is impersonating a plank. A planker lies facedown, arms held close to the body, legs held stiffly together, in the pose of a stiff plank of wood.

Oh, and here's the most important part: Someone takes a photo of the planker and posts it on Facebook or one of dozens of Internet sites that catalogue planking.

Word to the wise (the hip already know this … yawn), planking is so last month. When wacky fitness guru Richard Simmons and ancient playboy Hugh Hefner were recently pictured doing it, it clearly had jumped the shark.

Faster than you can say "Numa Numa dance," planking was replaced by owling (perching like one) and batting (hanging upside-down like one), which, of course, are so last week.

Then came leisure diving (entering a body of water in poses, including sleeping, lounging, shaving, barbecuing, etc.) and cone-ing (grabbing just the ice cream part of the cone from a server), now so five minutes ago.

Keep up, folks.

The latest thing?

Horsemaning, which was still in at the time these words were being typed. But perhaps out by time you read them.

(This involves taking a photo of two people who pose to look like one person whose head has been separated from his body, a la the Headless Horseman.)

You need a scorecard, or perhaps a Facebook poll, to keep track of the fads sweeping the Internet these days.

The modern era's phone booth stuffing, disco dancing, goldfish eating, hacky sacking or streaking is fueled by the speed of the Internet and just as rapidly dismantled by its easy ennui.

Begun in either Australia (where a man planking on a balcony railing fell to his death in May) or England, as "The Lying Down Game," planking became popular earlier this year and reached its peak this spring and summer.

A cousin told Ostrowski, 18, of Lancaster, about planking during a beach vacation in June.

"I was like, 'Wow. That's so stupid,' " Ostrowski said.

Then she tried it, and ended up planking around the country: on a lifeguard chair at the beach, near Mount Rushmore, on a wagon wheel in South Dakota.

"I think, especially over the summer, you're looking for something to do," said Ostrowski, a recent Lancaster Catholic High School graduate who is headed off to college soon. "It's interesting because everyone is involved and they know what's happening."

Ortiz, 36, of Lancaster, said it's a fun thing to do with his three kids.

"People don't go outside as much to play," he said. "They're indoors with the TV, Nintendo and Xbox. This is bringing people outside again."

Ortiz, who works at a furniture rental company, and his 10-year-old son have planked benches, swings and playground equipment at city parks. He also likes the challenge of it when he's with his buddies.

"We started laughing and saying, 'Let's plank this and plank that,' " he said. "I think it's a funny thing to do when you're walking around and talking and there's not much to do. You get a good laugh."

Fisher, 29, of Lancaster, likes the absurdity of planking, "the expressionlessness, the position people are in."

The planking motto is "You got a body, you got a plank." But Fisher believes it takes creativity and finesse to take planking to another level.

"What makes a plank great is you're not expecting to see that," said Fisher, who likes to be the random guy planking in the background of an otherwise ordinary picture.

That's what Fisher, youth pastor at Keystone Church in Paradise, did in the background of a photo of his youth group doing manual labor on a mission trip this summer.

"Some people like to get their picture taken in front of the Eiffel Tower," he said. "Some people like to plank on a roof."

Fisher's planking photos, posted on his Facebook page, have generated comments and interaction with friends he hasn't spoken to for a long time.

"It brings people together," he said of the worldwide fad.

He doesn't attach too much importance to it, however.

"This will not be a lifelong passion," he said.

The local plankers said they had heard of some of the newer fads, particularly owling.

"Boring," Fisher said. "I don't think there's anything creative to it."

But none had tried horsemaning.

"I guess I need to get on the Internet more," Ostrowski said, laughing. "I'm behind the times."

cstauffer@lnpnews.com