This Is a Thing: The "Perfect Split" Meme

In the beginning, there was planking. Remember planking? It was a brilliant little meme, really—annoying as it eventually was to have your Facebook and Instagram feeds cluttered with shots of people lying face-down wherever they could get away with it.

Well, there’s a new, and particularly dancer-friendly, awkward-pose meme in town: the “perfect split.” A Chinese college student apparently ignited the trend after posting the photo at right of her splitting it out in her dorm room. And the craze took off from there. Now the internets are awash with pics of people showing off their 180s in unlikely locations.

Here’s my question: Haven’t dancers been taking these types of photos for years? I mean, had Facebook been a thing when I was 15—many, many moons ago—my profile picture probably would’ve been a photo of me doing my homework in a split. Or watching TV in a split. Or doing a split at the beach. You get the idea. It’s pretty standard stuff in dancer-land, and has been for a while.

But I guess I won’t dump on a trend that produces images like this:

Because this photo, my friends, encapsulates everything that is wonderful about the world.

Hope you all have a split-tacular weekend!