If you participated in one of the 9 regional No Pants Subway Rides today across the world, leave us an agent report in the comments letting us know how it went. We will use this page to compile the photos and video of all the events as stuff gets sent to us. More to come! For now, let us know how things went in your town. If you haven’t already, be sure to join the Improv Everywhere facebook group and sign up for our mailing list, as that’s how you’ll find out about future national events.
Also, check out The Today Show’s coverage of No Pants, including a national map with all the cities participating:
Adelaide, Australia No Pants 2k8 Mission Report
Washington Post article on the DC ride.
Salt Lake City Local News Article, With Photos
Hey all. I was one of the group leaders in DC. A great time was had by all, although it definitely would have been better if we had been able to play dumb and pretend that nobody knew what was going on. I’ve been checking out various media and there are some great pics out there. Check out the following from boston.com:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/gallery/011208_nopants/
The fifth pic is priceless! Today was the most fun I’ve had in a long time. It’s good to see so many fun-loving, down-to-earth people out there.
Today’s high temperatures from No Pants Ride participating cities from coldest to warmest, in Fahrenheit:
Chicago – 39
Salt Lake City – 39
Toronto, Canada – 39
Boston – 48
Portland – 51
Baltimore – 51
New York – 51
Washington DC – 54
San Francisco – 54
Adelaide, Australia – 78
Lots of Chicago photos on Facebook
DC Photos on Facebook
Fox 5 Local TV video for DC
I’m one of two folk from DC who decided cowboy boots would be fitting for the occasion.
I’ve never had so many random strangers approach me on the metro – this time to ask, “Ok, what’s the deal?”
I gave varying degrees of vague answers, but we got looks everywhere, pictures taken, a few converts, and a lot of people citing their children as the reason they couldn’t join in.
The only valid excuse that I heard, in my opinion, was “Sorry, I’m going commando.”
The New York City No Pants Ride was divided between 3 different subway lines. On the 6 line our great leader, Agent Todd led the charge by dropping trough as soon as the train doors closed. This prompted a woman to turn her head in shock and block her daughter’s view. She looked at me after a few people repeated the disrobing ritual, as if to ask “why are these crazy people getting naked?” I simply shrugged and shook my head in disbelief. Which seemed to be enough for her, until I too stood up and removed the bottom half of my suit (she looked at me like I had betrayed some kind of silent pact between two normal people amidst a sea of lunatics).
When it was my turn to exit the train (sans pants) the doors opened to the very busy, union square stop. While waiting for the next train to arrive, the platform became quite busy, with tourists and and New Yorkers snapping pictures of everyone’s legs. One tourist with some kind of European accent stopped me to ask for directions… but not about my lack of clothing.
The highlight of this adventure were the people participating, and the after-ride events. The impromptu twister board in union square and the wonderful people who filled the Crocodile Bar made this truly memorable. After riding the trains quietly and seriously, it was great to cut loose. Every time another pantsless person came through the front door, the bar erupted into cheers. And every time someone came in wearing pants, the whole bar would chant “No Pants” until they gave up their jeans or ran back out the door in fear.
Thanks to all, -Jason
San Francisco was interesting. We had some confusion as to a meeting place (sorry, guys), so we ended up with several groups on different trains, which ended up being hilarious. The largest group had about 30-40 people, and I believe the smallest was 4. I need confirmation on that. Still, it’s pretty ballsy for only 4 people to take their pants off on public transit.
Some people stared, some people shook their heads or rolled their eyes. No one asked about it where I was.
One of the group of four reported that no one looked at them when they were actually on the train, but when they got off to wait at a station and turned around, the entire train car was staring out the windows at them.
Pictures will be sent in as soon as they are all collected from the various groups.
There was a slight bit of confusion at the Salt Lake City event, and at the designated start time, only a small handful of people had shown up. We waited around an extra five minutes and people seemed to gravitate out of nowhere. I’m estimating we had 30-40 people total who dropped trou for it.
I was attending the symphony after the event, so I dressed in suit and tie, and I believe I was the only person dressed somewhat formally. This seemed to put people at ease with me – people asked if I had just gotten off work, etc.
The first passenger interaction was a student from Klamath Falls, Oregon. He asked where my pants were, and after letting him know that “they were uncomfortable, and it was nice and sunny outside”, seemed satisfied with the answer. We chatted about music festivals until it was time to get off the train.
I ran into several elderly couples, all of whom gave a very puzzled look as I walked by.
At one stop where we had to get off to switch trains, we had barely missed the departing train which meant standing outside in the cold for 15 minutes. Luckily we were able to be entertained by the reactions of people driving by and seeing a bunch of pantsless people on the train platform.
A lot of people seemed to only stick around for one ride or two. I hung around for two hours, and only noticed two other pantsless people by the time I got off the train for the last time. At least I was able to go out with a bang, as there were three girls laughing uncontrollably and taking cameraphone pictures as I got dressed in my slacks in the middle of the train.
SF was amazing!
There was some fragmentation indeed, but I was lucky to be party of a posse of 40 or so. We rode all the way out to Daly City and back again.
Everyone ended up pounding beers afterward at some Irish pub in the financial district. Sans pants, of course.
The evening descended into group make out sessions (no seriously) and copious mooning of passing vehicles.
Killer.
There were only 2 of us for Baltimore! But we stayed strong! You can read the Agent report here:
http://ajdn.org/blog/what/2008/01/no-pants-2008-baltimore.html
Toronto Star Article
Chicago Sun Times Article
Salt Lake Tribune Article
Boston Globe Article
I’m not on Facebook, so perhaps there was a change in schedule for the Chicago event, but I missed nearly everyone. I arrived at the Granville Red Line station at 1:45 and it was deserted. I stayed until 2:30 awaiting my assignment, and met up with 2 other agents also awaiting assignments. At 2:30, we decided to go rogue. We each got on different cars of the same train and de-pantsed a couple stops later. By the time we got to the 35th St stop, we were all alone in our cars. We re-pantsed and switched to Northbound trains.
I got several comments, tourists who politely informed me that I had forgotten my pants, giggles, and rolling of eyes. Not many were brave enough to talk to me though.
So even though I missed the “official” event (what was the deal, anyway??), I still had a good time.
My sis & I participated in No Pants San Francisco! I overheard one person comment to another, “Any idea why a bunch of people are running around in their underwear?” We got a number of stares but no one asked us about it directly. Apparently, nudity is legal in SF so some folks possibly shrugged it off. This was my first No Pants event and I quietly thought it was hysterically funny. There was one guy in our car who had cowboy boots, a suit jacket and briefcase – brilliant! Good times.