Team Captains: Agents Good, Lovejoy, Ace$Thugg, Arnheiter, Purnell, Siegel, Wright, Morningstar, Bachrach, Intravita
Digital Video: Agents Kula, Gording, Isom
Digital Photography: Agents Nicholson, Pallas, Goralnick, Rosmarin
Our 6th Annual No Pants Subway Ride took place on Saturday, January 13. Around 300 people participated this year, making it the largest No Pants mission ever. If you’re unfamiliar with our No Pants series, check the missions page for write-ups of the previous five installments. This year’s ride was loads of fun, and unlike last year, it went off without a hitch. We had a great group filled with all different shapes, sizes, races, and ages.
Organizing 300 participants
When I arrived at the meeting point I noticed there were three police officers lurking a couple hundred feet away from us. I figured that might happen, considering the chaos of last year, and the fact that several local papers publicized the info for this year’s event. I introduced myself to them, and they were super nice. They recognized that the cop who stopped us last year made a mistake and were only there to escort us this year and make sure everyone stayed safe. It was as if we were a parade.
To accommodate the larger crowd this year, I made a few changes to the structure of the mission. The biggest change was doing away with the pants sellers. Always a funny punch line to the mission, it was sad to see the pants selling go, but considering how many people lost their pants last year, it just didn’t seem worth it. This year everyone brought along a backpack (or purse, briefcase, etc) and kept their own pants with them. The other major change is we actually used two separate trains. Everyone started on one train, and then stop by stop groups of participants would depants and then exit the train and wait on the platform. In previous years we’d just run down the platform to the next car, but this year we actually waited five minutes on the platform for the next train to come. Lucky for us, it was an unusually warm January day.
Agent Ace$Thugg waits at Spring Street
It was really cool looking out the window as the train pulled into the stations. Some stops had upwards of fifty pantless riders waiting to board. If you were seated on the train looking out the window you could only see the people on the platform from the waist up, which made for a funny reveal when the doors opened on their bare legs. There were several riders who stood out this year. We had a few businessmen:
We had a Boy Scout
A dude with a bike
Agent Eng came dressed as a priest
Agent Scordelis read Moby Dick
As always we got a variety of reactions from the New Yorkers we encountered. Most laughed and smiled. Some scowled. Some ignored.
By the end, every car on the train was filled with around 30 pantless riders.
At 125th Street, everyone exited the train and moved to the downtown tracks to take the train back to our starting point. There was a drummer on the platform and as folks waited an impromptu dance party broke out. Pantless people danced to the drummer’s beat while trying (unsuccessfully) to coax him to remove his own pants.
The ride back down was just as much fun. I switched cars at each stop, and it was tons of fun to see the different reactions in each of the ten cars. When we returned to our meeting point and exited the subway, most folks chose to keep their pants off. By far the warmest January in the history of No Pants, it really was quite comfortable walking around pantless outside.
See below for a little video and links to photos and news articles. Also be sure to check out the comments section (link at bottom of page) for the individual reports of agents involved.
VIDEO:
We don’t have too much video this year, mostly because I figured we already have enough No Pants footage from all the year’s past. Matt Besser of the Upright Citizen’s Brigade was nice enough to loan me his hidden camera eyeglasses, and we put them to use for this mission.
Agent Kula wearing hidden cam glasses
I put together a short montage of footage shot by Agent Kula using the eyeglass cam. The video quality isn’t great, but hopefully you’ll enjoy the Ween song.
(also on YouTube)
Mission Accomplished
OTHER RESOURCES:
Agent Nicholson’s Flickr photoset (Highlights, 47 photos)
Agent Nicholson’s Flickr photoset (Full set, 240 photos)
Agent Goralnick’s Flickr photoset (80 photos)
Agent Rosmarin’s Flickr photoset (39 photos)
All photos on flickr tagged with No Pants 2k7 (403 photos)
Agent Isom’s YouTube videos (11 short video clips)
lol.. gotta love you guys – in fact my friend had been on one of those trains and she told me about it in school.. i had to explain to her that you guys weren’t so crazy and i showed her the site – now she wants to come on the next mp3 experiment. good job as always!
Help! There was a female photographer who got a GREAT picture of me on the 125th St. platform. She showed me it on the ride back. She said she was goibg to post it on the ol’ Flicker, but didn’t. I had on a black leather jacket, headphones, an umbrella, and orange boxers with tiny skulls. If she reads this or if anyone has her contact info email me at twangofthevoid@gmail.com.
Some moments from my first ever mission…
Waiting for the train at Brooklyn Bridge, at first I was reading a book, I figured that way I could hear the reactions to the mission. But after a few minutes, I put it away and put on my MP3 player. That’s how I always ride the train, so to be truly committed to the mission, I decided I shouldn’t do anything differently than I normally would. Except for not wearing pants.
When I first sat down after we all boarded, I looked across at one of my fellow agents, and noticed she was wearing a triquetra ring on her right hand. I wanted to catch her eye and push my hair back and show her my triquetra earring, but it was too late for that, the mission was on. A few stops later, she depantsed, the stop before mine.
When I depantsed, I was so focused on getting it done in time, I have no idea what might have been going on around me. The adrenaline shot was massive, the last time I felt such a rush was also supposed to involve Agent Todd. But he went to play cards in a pool in Vegas instead. :-(
After boarding the train pantsless, it took a lot of concentration not to respond to the strange reactions I would glimpse from the corner of my eye. But by a couple of stops later, as the adrenaline settled, it became almost normal. Just another ride on the subway.
On the way back downtown, I decided to get off at 96th Street to get the next train. I was the only agent who did. After the other disembarking passengers left the station, I was all alone for a moment. I sat on a bench and silently enjoyed what little I could catch of the reactions of the unsuspecting riders as they entered to catch their train.
When the next 6 finally came, it was packed, including many agents. The ride from there was partly disappointing. Many of the agents seemed to have aborted the mission and were goofing around. I had committed not to break until I was back above ground, and I stuck to that.
Back at the rendezvous, I managed to find Agent Purnell, our team leader, gave him a thumbs up and, "Mission accomplished!"
It was just today that I finally found some pantsless evidence of myself. The very last clip of the "Fancy Pants" montage of Agent Kula’s Spectacle-Cam footage has a flash of me, and then just as Agent Kula turns to lean against the door and is about to face directly at me, fade to black. Agent Todd, you vex me! Re-cut! Re-cut!
I’m so mad. This was supposed to be my first mission. I was so psyched when I got the email about it. But I chickened out because I didn’t want to go alone and none of my friends would go with me. They all thought I was crazy. Oh well, perhaps next year.
Congratulations, agents! Glad you won’t be needing me this year!
What a difference a year makes! No shackles or paddy wagons? Where are Officer Panton and all the angry responders from 2k6? It restores my faith in silliness to see that it’s possible to have fun in NYC without incuring the wrath of all the lunatics.
Oh man. This event was everything I had pictured it. And more.
You may of seen me, I was the kid in the flowered shirt with a T-shirt under it. Spent most of my time sketching another depanted Miss across from me on the train.
I was a part of the 1st car, and I got off around the 8th stop on the ride down. I remember sliding to the side of my seat to allow one tourist to sit down (apparently the sight of a bunch of people exiting the train without pants on while she was coming on made her weak in the legs). She remarked to me, "The city seems to be getting crazier every day." I agreed, and mentioned half-heartedly that it was, indeed, a rather warm day out. My hands were shaking before I took my pants off and I was just about ready to chicken out when the girl sitting across from me (Blue shirt, never caught her name) got up and depants. The sight gave me courage, and I followed suit, offering the woman who had sat next to me a cheery little wave while I exited to the sight of her sadly shaking her head; as if everyone had finally cracked.
My favorite quote was from one artsy-looking kid with thick rimmed glasses as he exited the train, "You can almost sense the feeling of freedom in th…Boxers?"
How neat, you made some strangers look at you with confusion! *titter*
gee, that must’ve been cold, no pants in January!
So, you know Goralnick? (See my flickr.) And William Lobsterrocket? (Featured in one of these photos.)
‘Cause if you do, I’m pretending to be Jimminy Cricket today, all day.
Sounds like a beautiful thing! I’m english so when I saw the title of this on YouTube… little bit scared! It sounded suspisionly like people running around with nothing on their bottom half cause we call underwear "pants". I wish I was there.. sounded really fun!
Hey There Fancy Pants!
Dudes and dudettes of Improv Everywhere, I’ve previously lamented the fact that I’m on the wrong continent and thus can’t participate in missions. After this, I’m considering a trip to NY just to join No Pants 2k9 or 2k10.
Any kids on the trains?
And pets – were there any impressionable pets on the train that may have been harmed?
Oh, please…get a life, Worried guy. Kids see much worse on television every day. No pants doesn’t mean naked; it means “without pants.” Most people wore much more than they would wear at the beach, and there are some horrible parents who take their poor, impressionable children there. You know, come to think of it, we should keep our kids indoors at all times, as they might see or hear something outside that offends their lovely delicate little ears. We should also keep people from talking to one another, because sometimes people say things that inadvertantly hurt someone else’s feelings.
Ok, you win, this will be my last post criticizing your understanding of fun as disturbing and disrespecting other people. I can see from all around this site that you choose to ignore the harm you cause (except occasionally to laugh at it or celebrate it as a sign of success). And your standard response to those who do worry about these negative consequences of what you do is to say “just lighten up and don’t be so PC.†Well, “lighten up†is what the woman telling the lazy Mexican joke says. It’s what the guy grabbing the ass of the new intern in the coffee room says. It’s what the guy in the priest costume standing with his tighty-whiteys in my kid’s face on the subway says (and no, standing there in your undies is NOT the same as standing there in a bathing suit, as you claim—not to a small child that can be frightened by such things anyway). Yes, good comedy sometimes transgresses middlebrow norms and sometimes offends, but what you do by forcing your form of comedy on unsuspecting others and by setting out specifically (not inadvertently) to cause them discomfort, even though they never chose to be disturbed by your show, goes beyond merely being offensive. And worse, ignoring or ridiculing the clearly negative emotional reaction of some people when you do this to them is fundamentally inhumane. Whether those of us who criticize you have a good sense of humor or not is not the issue—I can laugh ‘til I piss myself just like you. It’s about respect and decency toward the other humans you share the streets with. Acknowledging their humanity means caring about it if they are genuinely fearful or anxious when you decide that causing them this distress is just the medicine they need for what you deem their bland lives. But I know now that I’m talking to no one, so I won’t bother you anymore. Peace.
Okay, Mrs. Worry-wart, calm the heck down.
I did not participate in No-Pants day (I live in the south), but I can assure you none of the agents “stood in their tighty whities in your kids face”. I am sure that each and every one of these agents, if faced with a small child would have made some move or another for a bit more decency. Whether it be a briefcase or a newspaper or a purse or bag in front of themselves, or even slipping away to take a seat out of sight of the young child, should young child not be cracking up with laughter that more than a hundred people weren’t wearing pants.
They see much worse on TV all the time, and I’m sure they hear worse in school.
It’s New York for crying out loud, and NO, it is not different from a bathing suit. Bathing suits show much more, and I’ve known quite a few guys that go swimming in their boxer shorts, and not swimming trunks.
Like I said, they’ll see and hear worse on TV and in school.
To All the Agents who participated,
I LOVE YOU!! You all are an inspiration to Improv Actors and Actresses everywhere! I can’t wait to read up on what happens next year!
May 8, 1886 (perhaps the original No Pants day). Perhaps the day a woman first took off her pants and put on a dress to become the woman she dreamed she could be (on a bicycle).
http://www.healthebike.com/blog
I think this is a great stunt. We live in a world where we need to laugh, and have fun,anyone who doesn`t get what your mission is just doesn`t know how to have fun. I hope to join you in “NO PANTS 2K8″ keep up the good work, and thank you for bringing a smile to my face.