Improv Everywhere: No Pants! Subway Ride

The pranksters of Improv Everywhere recently staged their annual No Pants! Subway Ride. More than 2,000 people around the world took off their trousers and rode the trains. From the New York City mission report:

All of the train lines converged on Union Square at the end of the mission, which means that within a short stretch of time 1,200 pantless people passed through the station’s exit turnstiles.

It was about 30 degrees out and still snowing when we made it to Union Square, but everyone was having too much fun to put their pants back on. Many participants hung out in the cold for over an hour, laughing with friends new and old.

No Pants 2k9 at Improv Everywhere

Previously:

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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Clayton

Antinous / Moderator: Now just how would that explain my comment volume? And what does my comment volume have to do with boingboing’s relevance? I still like the site, it’s just that more and more of the posts contain dated info.
Stefan Jones

Man, I can’t wait to see the amazing blog that Clayton comes up with.

#6: You had STAPLES?
daveistrad

MMCHICAGO @4. I was actually at the NYC event, and it was hysterical. I assume you participated in the Chicago one and are thus commenting from experience? What didn’t you like about it?
LeSinge

Dear BoingBoing writers:
Please keep up the good work. Not all of us read the entire internet every day. One man’s “This is so old” is another man’s “Oh hey, I missed this.”
mmchicago

@DAVEISTRAD No, not a participant, just an observer. So, why didn’t I like it? I just don’t find the absence of clothing to be especially clever/artistic/humorous/titillating. It just feels like a big fraternity prank to me.

There are plenty of other public improv pieces that I’ve enjoyed: human statues in Grand Central, twins on the train, zombie flashmobs, etc. To me, those have a sense of cleverness and wonder that make people think (and maybe make them laugh or brighten their day a little). This one just felt lame to me. Oooh! Look! No Pants! YMMV.
yezzer

“everyone was having too much fun to put their pants back on”

In the UK, ‘pants’ means underwear, which gives that a very different meaning :)
Anonymous

I’d just like to agree with Lesinge at number ten. Not all of us have the time to waste by reading five hundred stories off the front pages of Reddit and Digg every day.
querent

pintsize says, “I’m always naked!”
Clayton

#10, #11, I spend about an hour a day with my RSS feed. Welcome to the future!

-Troll out.
Gloria

What happened to “If I haven’t seen it, it’s new to me”?
David Pescovitz

Thank you LeSinge @10, Anonymous @11, and Gloria @14.
LeSinge

@13, Clayton. I guess to each his own. I get BoingBoing on RSS and consequently use BoingBoing almost exclusively for this type of stuff as I like their editorializing and also the comments.

That being said, I work for a large viral site and have actually worked with the guy that heads ImprovEverywhere and I STILL managed to miss this.
daveistrad

@MMCHICAGO OK, well, those are all really good points. Haha, oh well. I had fun doing it, and isn’t that all that counts??
SeeChao

OK, boing boing needs to warn me at least 24 hours in advance of something like this happening. I hate finding out that I had an excuse to be pantsless on the train yesterday, but missed out… Other people having fun is bad if it only reminds you that you didn’t get to have fun. :(
Takuan

I’m ALWAYS pantless…
Clayton

Boing Boing is slowly becoming the out of touch old man of the internet.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Boing Boing is slowly becoming the out of touch old man of the internet.
  
  That must explain why our comment volume has doubled in the last six months. People assume that we’re hard of hearing.
nanuq

Why can’t they hold these merry pranks during the summer months when it isn’t so cold?
daveistrad

It’s funnier in winter b/c people are that much more surprised to see someone in boxer shorts in a snowstorm than if it’s 90 degrees out.
mmchicago

It’s a week later and this still isn’t funny.
David Pescovitz

CLAYTON @1, Internet? Wait. When I was a youngster, we had to staple every ‘zine by hand!