NEW YORK (AP) — Subway riders in New York City and other places around the world got an eyeful when their fellow transit users stripped down to their underwear.
The annual No Pants Subway Ride took place on Sunday.
The event is organized by the Improv Everywhere comedy collective. It started in 2002 in New York with seven participants.
Organizers say pants-less subway rides were scheduled to take place this year in dozens of cities around the world. Philadelphia’s version is sponsored by a laundry delivery service.
Participants are told to get on trains and act as they normally would and are given an assigned point to take off their pants. They’re asked to keep a straight face and respond matter-of-factly to anyone who asks them if they’re cold.
Chad Bartlett announced D.C.’s eighth “No Pants Subway Ride” on Facebook after learning the usual planners were out of town.
“We’re just here doing some social disobedience and being a little strange,” he told WTOP right before the group walked to the L’Enfant Metro station.
Annis Roberts saw the announcement on Facebook, “And I was like, it’s cold outside, I don’t have anything else to do, might as well ride the Metro with no pants.”
Bartlett said even if there were no organizer this year, folks would have shown up anyway. The strange looks from other Metro customers didn’t seem to bother them.
“People … you’re shocked by it … and then people kind of warm up and they see that this is just fun, it’s a fun, cool, weird thing to do,” said Bartlett.
Bartlett manages another pants-free event, Cupid’s Undie Run in D.C. “I’m going to be in my underwear next month doing that, I might as well be in my underwear this month bringing people together.”
Facial expressions on other Metro riders’ faces seemed to range from quizzical to incredulous.
Others were just trying to wrap their minds around what their eyes saw.
“I don’t know what the hell’s going on. I’m just looking. Girls in drawers, boys in drawers, I don’t know what’s going on,” laughed Eric from Southeast D.C.
WTOP’s Liz Anderson contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
