It’s Sunday January 9th, at dusk, in Union Square and thousands of pantless people have gathered at the end of an epic no pants subway ride. Improv Everywhere’s “No Pants Subway Ride” has now gone global in its 9th year. The phenomenon of social freedoms was held in 43 cities around the globe. Voluntary participants in New York met at specified meeting points throughout the city where the massive army of 3,000 willing exhibitionists were divided into groups and given the order in which to de-pant in trains throughout the city.
Created in August of 2001 by Charlie Todd, Improve Everywhere causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places. Improve Everywhere has executed over 100 missions involving tens of thousands of undercover agents. The group is based in New York City. You may also know them from people spontaneously freezing in Grand Central Station (http://improveverywhere.com/
The spontaneous antics of the group are not only attention grabbing (think Punk’d on a large social scale) but also bring unity and magnetism to a group of total strangers sharing a unique and bizarre experience.
As a participant in this social experience, standing pant less in the subway in the middle of a crowd of other half naked people, all pretending as if nothing out of the ordinary was taking place; it became apparent that we were a part of something larger than ourselves. A prank of sorts, yes, but also a exorcize in fun and freeing personal boundaries.
After an hour trek on multiple designated trains all participants met in Union Square where after hours of straight faced nothings-going-on attitude a joyous party atmosphere erupted. In the train station hundreds of participants danced, even doing the electric slide, as boggled city folk observed. Outside of the station music blasted and the horde of under pant clad people danced and recounted their adventure.
In the bars and restaurants around Union Square men in bottomless business suits and women in dress shoes and thongs meandered about. Though the idea is simple the reaction is phenomenal. As for myself, I can’t wait until next year’s no pants subway ride.
