Planking is so last year. The bizarre new internet-inspired craze is “milking”, featuring students pouring two litre milk cartons over their heads.

If you thought web crazes would never top the idiocy of planking you probably hadn’t counted on the ingenuity of a group of students in Newcastle, England.

Bored of pushing each other down the street in shopping trolleys and placing traffic cones on top of statues, the group of male students decided to film each other pouring pints of milk over their heads, recording the stunts for their friends’ amusement.

The “milkers” are filmed performing the strange stunt in main shopping streets, standing in the middle of roads and outside popular student watering holes, as well as popping out of wheelie bins and sitting in trees.

After posting the videos to Facebook and You Tube, the students were interviewed by university newspaper The Tab, which reported copycat videos at prestigious Oxford University and other institutions around the UK.

Comments on You Tube were mixed, with some praising the students and others accusing them of immaturity.

“This is legen… dairy”, said one commentator, while another wrote: “Holy cow man! Dairy good video. Just semi-skimming youtube when I found this.”

‘Milking’ definitely has its drawbacks: a high laundry bill and the ever present smell of sour milk.