Global No Pants Subway Ride 2012: gallery of photos larger than you might actually wish to view

(REUTERS/Lucas Jackson)

A young boy looks up at a woman with no pants on while riding in the subway system during the annual No Pants Subway Ride in New York on January 8. The event is organized by Improv Everywhere, and involves participants who strip down to their underwear as they go about their normal routine. WTF and why?

The mission started as a small prank with seven guys and has grown into an international celebration of silliness, with dozens of cities around the world participating each year. The idea behind No Pants is simple: Random passengers board a subway car at separate stops in the middle of winter without pants. The participants do not behave as if they know each other, and they all wear winter coats, hats, scarves, and gloves. The only unusual thing is their lack of pants.

There are reports from participants on the Improv Everywhere website. More photos follow, below. NSFW-ish.

No Trousers Day participants on a flashmob ride in London. (REUTERS/Chris Helgren)

A gentleman in London lets it all hang out. (REUTERS/Chris Helgren)

In Mexico City, una persona sin pantalones. (REUTERS)

Underwear on the Underground, London. (REUTERS/Chris Helgren)

London. (REUTERS/Chris Helgren)

London. (REUTERS/Chris Helgren)

Men react to seeing ladies sans pants, New York City. (REUTERS/Lucas Jackson)

• [Tez Fair]

  Ahh, now in the UK pants are underwear so needless to say I was a little disappointed in the pictures.

  • [dculberson]

    I made the mistake of saying “I need to change my pants” around a Welshman.  He looked at me funny for a bit before making the American English correction.

• [savagejen]

  As if the sanitation of most subways wasn’t scary enough.

• [bcsizemo]

  Considering how short some girl’s shorts are now, this isn’t much of a stretch…

  Meh, I spend too much time on the internet, the real world just seems so tame.

• [nesnora]

  After listening to the “This American Life” episode about what they did to Ghosts of Pasha, I can’t help but approach everything they do with a “meh” now.

  Also the germ freak in me is horrified from the mental association of “unmentionables” and public hygiene, but I guess it’s really no worse than women wearing skirts or men with gym shorts…

• [Melinda9]

  “Here am I sitting in a tin can – With someone’s nutsack in my face.”

• [Kevin Osborne]

  looks like a side walk in Miami. BFD.
  Also, i have a new appreciation for pants

• [Bhautik Joshi]

  Pics from San Francisco #NPSR http://www.flickr.com/photos/captin_nod/sets/72157628787493089/

  There was a peculiar moment when the crowd was kicked out of a (public?) park because security from a nearby building thought it was the start of some sort of terribly obscure Occupy Wall St protest.

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    That’s kind of how SF looked in the 70s when Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver was a style icon. We would have been wearing platforms, though.

• [yajnes]

  i dont know why people still do this. it’s not even shocking or making an impact anymore

  • [robotnik]

    Fun?

  • [Tim Breen]

    Did you not read the article? It’s not about being shocking and certainly not about making an impact. It’s about being silly.

     ”The mission started as a small prank with seven guys and has grown into an international celebration of silliness”

• [DAN OUTLAW]

  We need to work on TANNING those yams…………………………………..

• [sdaris]

  It’s forced and not fun ⊗⊗

  • [chris bending]

    Alright chuckles.

  • [Ln twon]

    I agree, I thought it was silly, like planking.