No Pants Subway Ride

Participants of No Pants Subway Ride inside a Seattle Light Rail train, Seattle, USA, 2015

The No Pants Subway Ride (or No Trousers on the Tube Ride in the UK[1]) is an annual event where people ride rapid transit or subway while not wearing trousers.[2] Beginning in New York in 2002, the event had spread to as many as sixty cities as of 2013.

History

People leaving the SkyTrain station, wearing underwear, Vancouver, Canada, 2012.

The annual No Pants Subway Ride event is a day where people ride the subway while they are not wearing trousers.[2] The event is organized by Improv Everywhere, and has coordinators in cities around the world. This event takes place each year in early January; the date is announced in early December on Improv Everywhere's site.[3]

The first No Pants Subway Ride began with seven riders in 2002 on the New York City Subway. In 2006, 150 people participated in New York City. During that event, eight were handcuffed for disorderly conduct, but the charges were later dismissed.[4] For 2013, sixty cities had coordinators.[5]

In January 2016, the event took place for the first time in Moscow, Russia. The participants were investigated by the police under the offense of the "instigating of mass public disorder", however there are opinions the accusations would not stand ground, since the organizers' goal was to make people laugh.[6]

In January 2018, The Guardian published a photo montage of participants in the subways of some of the sixty cities worldwide, calling the event, "International No Pants Day".[7]

Celebrations in 2021 and following years were cancelled due to the COVID-19 Pandemic,[8] but were resumed in 2025,[9] though apparently not in New York.[10]

See also

References

  1. ^ Sims A It's the annual No Trousers on the Tube Ride this Sunday Timeout 6 January 2017
  2. ^ a b Berman, Mark (11 January 2013). "No pants, no problem: No Pants Subway Ride returns Sunday". The Washington Post. Retrieved 10 May 2013.
  3. ^ "No Pants Subway Ride proves passengers need better underwear". CNN Travel. 14 January 2013. Archived from the original on 15 January 2013.
  4. ^ "No Pants Subway Ride returns to Number 6 train". New York Public Radio. 13 January 2007. Archived from the original on 26 September 2012. Retrieved 24 May 2013. A judge later threw out the disorderly conduct charges, noting that it's not illegal to wear underwear in public.
  5. ^ Tom Herrmann (7 January 2013). "No Pants Subway Ride 2013 hits NYC and cities around the world [city list, video]". International Business Times. Retrieved 24 May 2013.
  6. ^ "'No Pants Subway Ride': Moskauer Teilnehmern droht Arrest" ['No Pants Subway Ride': Moscow Participants threatened with Arrest]. Russia Beyond (in German). 12 January 2016. Retrieved 2019-05-20.
  7. ^ Hecimovic, Arnel (2018-01-08). "International No Pants Day – in pictures". the Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-12-01.
  8. ^ Rahmanan, Anna (9 January 2023). "This year's No Pants Subway Ride has officially been canceled". Time Out.
  9. ^ "No Trousers Tube Ride brings carnival of underwear to London Underground". The Guardian. PA Media. 12 January 2025.
  10. ^ Golata, Justine (10 January 2025). "This Year's No Pants Subway Ride Is Looking Like A No-Go". Secret NYC.

Further reading

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