Planking is so 6 months ago. The latest Internet trend that’s taken a life of it’s own is called Tebowing. Tebowing is the act of dropping down to one knee and praying while the world around you continues on. An act made famous by Tim Tebow, usually while his teammates are celebrating or carrying on.
It was hard to miss at Florida and it happened again as Tebow led the Denver Broncos back to victory in his first NFL start last week. It’s an act that caught the eye Jared Kleinstein while he was sitting in a bar and he did what any grown man would do. He started a website. A website called Tebowing that shows pictures of people dropping to one knee and praying. In only one week the site has received 390,000 visitors and is receiving over 1000 photo submissions a day.
Over the past week I’ve noticed other sports stars and even celebrities Tebowing although I have to admit I didn’t understand why they were all doing the same pose. It took me a few days to catch a link that explained what was going on. This week Tebow was asked what he thought about the site and other athletes using his celebration and he responded “Yeah, some people don’t necessarily take it seriously but they’re on their knee praying, so who knows what you’re going to think about after that and how that can affect you?” Tebow said. “Hopefully, it’s a good example for people.” Yesterday it received even more publicity when Stephen Tullock of the Lions “tebowed” after he sacked Tebow. Disrespectful or trendy, either way it’s certainly the biggest on field troll in quite a while.
A site like this can either be a quick fad but other times it can run for years. For instance KimJongIlLookingAtThings has been hilarious and going strong for over a year. As a website owner it’s a dream to have a site reach a tipping point where users give you enough content for months to come. It’s the reason c0mpananies buy popular fad sites. Not because they are hoping to cash in on advertising but because the valuable users that can be moved over to new sites in which they will hopefully submit content as well. It’s the reason Ben Huh paid $1 million for I Can Haz Cheezburger. Will Tebowing be worth a million dollars? I doubt it, but I can be that Jared Kleinstein is having a million dollars worth of fun.
The site owner has something…as long as Tebow remains the starter.Another Sunday like that & the fad will die like seal in a shark tank.