On Saturday January 12th, 2008 nearly 2,000 people took off their pants on subways in 10 cities around the world. In New York’s 7th Annual No Pants! Subway Ride we had around 900 participants, spread out over three subway lines. Enjoy the videos first and then go behind the scenes with our mission report and photos.
(also available on YouTube)
shot and edited by Matt Adams
Team Captains: Agents Good, Lovejoy, Kinney
Digital Video: Agents Adams, Curtis, Gross, Cacy, Shafer
Digital Photography: Agents Nicholson, Sokoler, Scott, Goralnick, Randyc
900 people arrive at the meeting point
Our No Pants mission has grown quite a bit from the small, subtle, seven-person operation from 2002. Ever since the police handcuffed 8 participants back in 2006, the news media has gone completely crazy over the concept of pantless subway riders. The amount of coverage both before and after this year’s event is beyond absurd, but ultimately the more people who learn about it and participate, the better. It’s an old idea, but this year hundreds of people were experiencing it for the first time, and no matter how much publicity it gets, in a city of 8 million plus tourists, there will always be people who have no idea what is happening.
In many ways, No Pants has turned into an annual parade, complete with police escorts.
The police were super friendly this year. They both had never heard of us before, and were amused when they found out they were on “No Pants Detail.” In year’s past we’ve always used the 6 train, but with a crowd three times the size of last year, I decided to expand it to the 2 and R trains as well, both a short walking distance from our meeting point. This put around 300 people on each line, with each car growing stop by stop from 1 to 30 pantless riders. Spreading it out like this helps keep the spirit of the mission alive. While much of the day was complete insanity, there were still moments on each car where one or two pantless riders stood amongst a car of regular folks with no cameras in sight.
Organizing 900 people
Thankfully it was 50 degrees out
Team Leader Agent Good talks to his group
300 people head for the 6 train as others head to the R and 2 trains
Like last year, we actually used two separate trains for each line. For the first train the effect is that at every stop new people are standing up, removing their pants, and leaving the train. People on the second train then see pantless subway riders waiting on the platform and entering their car at each stop.
As my group boarded our assigned car and sat calmly waiting for the train to move, I realized that I didn’t know a single person in the group. We were all strangers to each other. In many ways, we were just like a normal train car, a bunch of strangers quietly sitting and ignoring each other. The key difference was that we all knew that we would soon be seeing each other pantless.
I got off at the first stop and passed the time reading Agent Ace$Thugg’s new book.
At the first stop one rider got out from each of the ten cars. As the train pulled away, the ten of us were left spread out along the platform. Two guys walked by all of us, laughing hysterically and giving us reviews of our underwear. “Nice! Classic, polka dots with bright orange backdrop,” they shouted to me as they went past.
People always want to know what the male/female ratio is at No Pants. Over the past 7 years it’s gone from 0% to about 50% female.
People gawking at the pantless from across the platform
As usual, we got all sorts of different reactions from people. Most laughed and smiled. Some looked around with wild bewilderment. Others tried to ignore us. A few got angry and offended. There was a woman who was standing next to me for 10 stops. She didn’t crack a smile the whole time or give any indication that she even noticed what was happening. Right before her stop, she took out a camera phone and calmly took exactly one picture before exiting the train. Even she couldn’t resist.
Although our participants are instructed to play things completely straight, and to insist that they simply forgot their pants and do not know the other pantless riders, this year there was just a touch of winking happening in the book choices made by some riders.
Agent Siegel, who was handcuffed in his underwear in 2006, reads “You Are Going To Prison”
After heading uptown, the R and 6 train riders got out and boarded a downtown train to Union Square for our post-mission meet up. As the 2 train doesn’t stop at Union Square, its riders actually made a transfer at Times Square to the R, which resulted in a hilarious parade of pantless folks marching through the station.
It was even crazier at Union Square as the three trains converged and poured all 900 riders out into the station.
Everyone gathered above ground in the park and most kept their pants off. The mild 50 degree day really made it quite comfortable to go pantless.
A few regular folks in the park decided to take their own pants off and join in on the fun. It was contagious.
Random woman removes pants to the delight of crowd
Two men decide to join the group
This year there were even a few agents (counter-agents?) who showed up with their own agenda: to spread the word of pants. They handed out pro-pants brochures that read like hilarious religious tracts, and tried to prosthelyze the pantsless. They even had their own t-shirts. There was much screaming and shouting as they clashed with the angry pantless mob.
No Pants has grown into a huge social event, with participants making fast friends with each other. Many folks show up alone and end up meeting tons of new people. There were several unofficial after-parties at various nearby pubs. The mission continued into the night as entire bars were filled with pantless patrons. Some got a little drunk, it seems.
While participating, it was fun to think about the fact that there were people in 9 other cities in 3 countries doing the exact same thing.
It was summertime in Adelaide, Australia (78 degrees)
Baltimore, MD
Boston, MA
It was a cold 39 degrees outside in Chicago, IL
Washington DC
Portland, OR
San Francisco, CA
Salt Lake City, UT
Toronto, Canada
The Today Show even made a national map of the event.
Mission Accomplished
OTHER RESOURCES:
We have compiled an exhaustive list of flickr photo sets, videos, and news articles from all 10 regional No Pants Subway Rides and put it all together in one post. From Lester Holt of The Today Show laughing about us to a Turkish newscast talking about us in Turkish, it’s all here for your enjoyment: No Pants Complete Photos & Video Worldwide
There are also tons and tons of mission reports detailing the experiences of participants from the New York and regional rides. Everyone has their own personal story from their own unique experience:
If this is your first time here:
-our other 70+ missions can be seen here: Missions
-sign up for our RSS feed
-New Yorkers join our NY Agents list
-everyone else can get involved in their town at Improv Everywhere Global
If only…I hate small towns.
Hilarious as usual.
Hope to participate someday!
Was an absolutely awesome event. My second mission, my first no-pants. Can’t wait for next year’s and everything in between! Red-line car 9 was the best! :)
dangit, i hate living in seattle, I missed all the action
great job agents. people don’t have fun as much as they should. my hat is off to you all.
OMG! This had me dieing!!!! This year was amazing!! Congrats to everyone in NY, and all the other states and countries! This HAS to be made into an international holiday, to bring smiles all around. Great start to a great year! -Natalia
i also overheard some workers at the Union Square Barnes and Noble discuss the pants-less ‘12 year olds’ who had apparently stormed the Cafe there. i tried not to smile too obviously.
also, boxer shorts are very uncomfortable under tighter women’s jeans, i was so relieved to have them off and my precious pants back on.
The guy reading “Investing for Dummies” is the best. Too funny guys. Great job.
Charlie Todd for President!! The looks from the kids are the best!! Keep up the great work IE
“This year there were even a few agents (counter-agents?) who showed up with their own agenda: to spread the word of pants. They handed out pro-pants brochures that read like hilarious religious tracts, and tried to prosthelyze the pantsless.”
Now THAT is funny on a whole other level!
AHH! LOL i soow anted to see wat happened in my city, toronto, lol!!! woot you guys are so enthusiastic xD i’m so amazed we still have the spirit to unit as a community O.O
YEAH!!!!! I MADE IT IN THE VIDEO :)
Shout outs to Roomie, Alyssa, Kira & “Business Jason” for making it in videos/pics too!
Not to sound corny or anything, but DAMN! What a natural high you get off of these improv events.
Improv Everywhere “staff,” do you have any happy hours or get togethers in between events? I met such amazing people at this event and think it would be fun to have get togethers in between for people to reunite/meet. Thoughts?
Love.
Just love.
I adore how people can just be so free and happy! I was walking along with some people from my car (R CAR TWO!!!) and I remarked (to myself) how weird it was to be walking down the street in New York City talking with a guy I met a few hours ago where both of us were lacking pants.
It’s all about the society, hell, I was ‘worried’ about being in a bikini on the beach relatively recently. And now I’m flaunting myself around NYC.
Love.
hahaha You guys completely crack me up. Especially after the 2006 debacle..
Your descriptions are high-larious.(The cops… heh)
I am saddended that we can not unfortunately emulate you here in LaLa land; as one astute friend of mine pointed out, here no one would know it was a joke. I wondered what she meant, until I realized it is perhaps simply because of the difference of styles of attire– (it is not uncommon here to see such undressed-ness.)Besides that, what is this thing you call “public transportation” anyway? We’ve heard of it, but it seems like some weird science fiction fantasy, no?
On a more sinister level, it could also perhaps be due to the constant police state w/ cameras and survelliance & the like that we sheep have come to accept … “You’re not *shopping*?!? Get the Tazer!!!” etc…
good lucks to yas ;)
I have to say this: IMO, dress socks and boxers looks ridiculous on us guys (seriously, does anyone, guys/girls, disagree? we look like clowns). If I’m, ya know, with a girl, the socks are coming off quick if not first. But the 15 minutes I spent on the R platform at times square platform by myself with no pants was a lot of fun (and this coming from someone who streaked his college campus every freshman orientation).
wow. and i had to be out of NYC the day this was going on. damn you, philadelphia, for being such a square, square city.
and that San Fran girl is hawt….so West coast.
Next year, I’m going to a big city with a subway system just so I can participate :)
PS: A link to this story “seems not to be a proper working link” for Digg (http://www.digg.com/submit/). A shame, I think this would help spread the word.
Perhaps this should be done more often……
my 2nd year, had such a great time. i wasn’t as nervous as i was last year. & 2 of my photos were used above. sweet!
OK, I’m so doing this next year. I have to work hard to get to a subway that gets me from/to home during a work day, but next year, I’ll do it.
I love the old guy who grins, and the lady who does, too. The scowlers were funny, but sad.
Adopting a casual attitude about it is the perfect response. :-) What fun, and bravo to all of you who participated!
I’d like to join the Baltimore group for the next No Pants. Do you know who I can contact?
I had so much fun this year, and I had an awesome time interviewing people aftwards. And I just finished putting together the post event interviews for my Podcast, the “Haroldcast”, you can hear my interviews with the pantless many at my talkshoe page http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/43661 or you can subscribe on iTunes.
The Chicago event got coverage here in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I’m surprised that the Toronto and NYC ones didn’t..
Odd how media works.
Good job on another successful year, everyone =)
Hi,
Congratulations on a great event. Thanks for coming to Chicago. Thank God it wasn’t this weekend when the temp was about 1 F.
Did you know that your event just precedes the Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board Meeting in Washington, DC? The public transportation sessions are usually held in the Hilton near City Lights.
You miss most of the meeting attendees, but I am sure that the news accounts were around to be talked about at the meeting this year. With so many cities, you MUST have gotten some good discussion this year. LOL
Just wanted to let you know that I blogged an article on this year’s event in Chicago picking up some of your video feeds at Improv Everywhere Has CTA Riders Without Pants in No Pants 2k8 CTA Chicago on CTA Red Line.
Hopefully I got all the facts right. If I did not, please feel free to correct me in the comments and I will be glad to fix it.
I think I wrote an earlier post about a simultaneous cell phone ringing scene - was that your group? Had to be. I will have to look back at some of your earlier missions and post on some of them too.
I hope to participate in the future, but a disability limits what I can do. But you all did great. Perhaps this will boost future CTA January Ridership!
Peter, Chief Editor and Spelling Wrecker
The Peter Files Blog of Comedy
Http://thepeterfiles.blogspot.com
I know I’m not the only one who was accosted by the “Pants Proselytizer” when we all met up after the subway ride in Union Square. This guy was dressed up in a suit, and was on a soap box telling all of those with no pants that we should convert to the ways of pants. Typical statements included “How can we end hunger if we’re not wearing pants?” At one point, I’m fairly certain that someone pantsed him (and by “pantsed” I mean, removed his pants).
I saved his flyer, and scanned it in for posterity:
Flyer Page 1
Flyer Page 2
Thanks again Charlie for a great time, I had a blast!!!!! I was on such a high afterward, & so didn’t want to put my pants back on. Can’t wait to do it next year.
I’m so honored you used 1 of my pics(the 2 guys who took spontaneously took their pants off in Union Square)! I feel special. ;-)
Why soooo few males in undies?? be proud! Reclaim your package for the masses! Boxer shorts are shorts! Not intriguing.
I believe in freedom of expression & the degree of comfortably individuality one owns. However I would prefer to see more folks of all genders wearing the same sort of undergarmet undies… to escape the “norm”.
I’m not for the A of a T & A show of mostly women — That’s so stale & mainstream. I want to freely objectify you males, too!!!
Equal opportunity, please!
Altho I’m all for women in boxers & males in little undies as a gender reversal. Yes, San Francisco IS the place for that!
From a queer woman that appreciates a lot, especially genderfuk.
c’est vraiment sympa!!! (”it’s so nice” in french!:) )
why we don’t do that in France? and in other country!:) a good vibe can start if such event can be organised the same day, in many continent!! :)
Haha. Great event! People’s expressions were hilarious!
Wow! Great event - thanks for all the pics and movies.
I particularly like the woman in the pink ruffled undies in the Matt Adams video. Images of her will keep me warm through the winter months.
Idiots!!!!
For THIS my father died in WWII ;(
I have never seen the “frown wink” emoticon before. How perplexing!
Thank’s for the inspiration.
Neither the #2 nor the #5 IRT make stops in Boise, so May it is for us.
One more reason public transportation sucks in Texas! Maybe we could all commute one morning with our bumpers off :(
One Day I will travel to the USA, to NYC, and spend a holiday there, deliberatly includin a day it takes place, until then, have fun, you guys ;D
PS Ever thought what someones reaction would be if they got (or saw someone get) excited (a man, lower down ;) ) whilst pantless??? XD
Can we get a No-Pants Atlanta going on the MARTA, please?
I know I’m late to this (commenting) party, but Philadelphia actually DID have a small faction of IEers with no pants riding around on the blue line. I only heard about it after the fact, but from several people who witnessed it.
Excellent concept!
Planning who will do what where they do it, and at what time, and for how long, is not improv.
Damn, London didn’t have this.
Damn!
I wish I had done this… too bad I’d be the only one in Seattle hahaha.
And the day after my birthday too!
Coulda worn my birthday suit (almost) two days in a row.
=p
Nice work!
OMG, I’m so sad that I had to work that day (had I known Salt Lake would have a no pants TRAX ride I would have requested the day off)… on the bright side, may 2nd (first friday of may every year, this year is the 2nd) is No Pants Day (scarily it is almost recognized as an international holiday)… guess I’ll just have to do that instead.
The human body is such a funny beautiful creation, and the USA is a great place to watch from Portugal. I’m glad to see my country is still able to have serious, harmlessfun!
Love it! The peoples reactions are priceless.
We MUST get No Pants Day to Minneapolis! I am going to look into this. Dammit, the Twin Cities must not be left wearing pants when their cooler (literally) brothers and sisters are baring their legs in solidarity.
Going naked would be even more fun. Though probably more arresting!
Wow ..this is so nice. I wish most of the world would be as rich and have as much spare time as the US to join in on these things. I don’t imagine the people of Eritrea, who have to worry about what they’re going to it, doing stuff like this. Nor the Palestians in the Gaza Strip under the iron fist rule of Hamas taking time off from their struggles to do stuff like this. This is an example of what you call freedom, not only of opinion, but also of economic strife. You have to have a full fridge to dedicatre time to fun pranks. *sigh* If only the third world could have so much fun.
Why not do this in China?
simply beautiful…i’d like u do this in italy too.
great
this is really cool..! I wish I was in US and take part …snif ! This would NEVER take place in Greece, unfortunately..
We have to do this in LA! Not everyone here commutes in their cars and we can’t let the Bay Area have all the fun!
Aaaaah! I’m in it! I’m in the first video in the camel jacket trying to hold the door. Awesome!
Great!
I hope there is something like this in the UK?
I predict that some company such as American Apparel will soon have a layout with their models in undies in a subway.
We don’t have a subway in Seattle, but we could do this easily in the bus tunnel from one end of town to the other.
-g
hopefully i’ll be living in chicago this time next year so i can participate
down with pants!!!
Hey i really think Colorado has to get in on this. We just got a new light rail system that goes all the way through the city and lk EVERYWHERE. well just saying…
Anything going on in Ottawa?
This looks like loads of fun. I’m going to make plans to attend the next one, most definitely. : )
hahaha:D seems like such a funfun thing to do, if only a bit embarrassing!
sadly, we can never have it here in Singapore, because we are a conservative asian society whatnot and the police would probably arrest all of us. something to do with our lack of free speech and public decency, you know, random stiff stuff like that D:
Holy Shit! I can’t believe I found this! I SAW THIS HAPPEN! At the Times Square station. It was almost 10 at night and some lady was wearing tights, but no pants. And a blazer. She was all proffesional. I thought maybe she just forgot her pants, maybe missed her medication. I wasn’t sure. lmao i told everyone about the crazy lady i saw with no pants leaving times square.
I’m glad I didn’t know it was 2K8 No pants Day, it would have ruined the experience.
haha, if this show in china BJ will be more funny than new york!!!
yes!
Great stuff!
I’d be lying if i said some of those pic’s didn’t get my blood pumping - hot! No doubt that wasn’t the purpose though :p
Out of curiosity, that girl wearing the orange headscarf (nopants8_22), is she muslim, or did she wear that for some other reason?
My city is building a tram line right now…I can’t wait for it to be completed, so we can do this here (Bergen, Norway)
women with no pants are hot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh I’ll have to do it the year after next. I’ll be moving to Toronto then. Looks like fun.
What if you don’t have a subway system in your whole state? I would love to organize something like this in Rhode Island, but.. no subways. :(
Thanks,
Jazaray
If only there were a Southern Region (Say Houston or Austin?)! I’d love to do a No-Pants and a few other missions you’ve already done (primarily the IPOD and Frozen Grand Central Station ones).
C’mon guys! Work your way down, already! Besides its awesome seeing all those shirtless/pantsless guys.
a little late, but to agent crimson’s “i also overheard some workers at the Union Square Barnes and Noble discuss the pants-less ‘12 year olds’ who had apparently stormed the Cafe there. i tried not to smile too obviously.”
i was one of those “12 year olds” :D
lmao
In my city, home of the Flying Pig Marathon, this would never fly even though we have naked pigs with wings everywhere for this event. Have to say though, that the men were disappointing donning the “safe” boxer shorts…just not risky enough and definitely not appealing. Seems women are more comfortable with their body parts than men - although men are certainly comfortable seeing women reveal as much as possible. Too bad…maybe next year more men will liberate themselves. Sure hope so!!!
FUN STUFF!!!
Hi, I am not convinced, that this kind of action is very healthy to society. While once agents have been handcuffed, now “everybody” seems to accept underwear in public. While we might have disapproved nude publicity in past decades we might not nowadays.
The point I am trying to make, IMHO, is that this kind of behaviour helps in degeneration of society. While decades and decades ago, there were fewer people or outstanding people or excentric people pushing things, that we might now consider as progress, nowadays “pushing progress” is in everybodies hands.
Don’t get me wrong: I don’t want to turn back into dark ages, where bikini was considered devil’s, but how long will it take, that -eg. this group- will be just naked in public in the subway like you are now without pants? I don’t find that very educating for children and I would prefer that my children would not see things like this. As I prefer choseing what they see in TV, just to make an example.
Sure, I suppose it was fun. But I think there are other ways, too, without necessarily being rude.
Cheers, Hank
This is so awesome it made me cry.
Ahh yes… T.O. I saw a bunch of them walk on without pants and my mind immediately snapped to the improv everywhere group… sure enough I was right…
look at me now, I’m a member of the toronto group
I thought the girl in a headscarf was pretty funny too. Of course, maybe she wore it on purpose for ironic contrast.
Also, love the shot of the two little girls pointing.
they should put one in daallas i would participate
Bring this to Dallas
This has to move into malls around the world! For cities like Nashville TN that don’t have a subway system. Go Pantsless!
some sexy panties out there.
cool idea
Oh my god, I wish I could be a part of this. If only public transit in Houston was big enough to actually do something like this in.