Sixth Annual No Pants! Subway Ride
January 22nd, 2006
No Pants 2k6
Team Captains: Agents Kula, Barrison, Kinney, Shelktone, Ace$Thugg
Leadoff Riders: Agents Todd, Good, Lovejoy, MacNeil, Shafeek
Pants Sellers: Agents Becket, Walker, Gill, Lathan, Arnheiter, Rodgers, Mercer, Loughran, Kodner
DV Cams: Agents Shafer, EMartin, Chunk, Cavin, Zeigler
Digital Photography: Agents Nicholson, Rainswept, Ries, Winters, Chigirev, Altaffer
Door Watchers: Montague, Wright
__________________________________________________
Taking off my pants on the subway has become a yearly event for me. It has all of the emotions associated with a real holiday: stress, excitement, joy, laughter. "No Pants" has come a long way since 2002 when for seven consecutive stops on the 6-train, a pantless rider took his pants off in one car, and hurried down to the next car in all his bare-legged glory. We didn't even have our act together enough to take photographs the first year (though the video footage is still my favorite of everything we have on the DVD page). Each year it's gotten larger and more exciting. It's gone from seven white dudes in their 20's to a lovely mix of men and women of different races and ages. It's always a good time for both us and the random strangers we encounter. New friends are made. People laugh and smile. Some ignore us, but I think that's pretty funny too.
Heading over to the meet up point, I was nervous. Like years past I had sent out exactly one email promoting "No Pants" to my NYC mailing list, but that list has grown quite a bit over the last year. The details were forwarded all over. The event wound up on the front page of AOL, among other places. It was the fifth time we were doing this, so I didn't really care too much if word got out ahead of time. It's a tradition, not a secret. I was mostly nervous that I would show up and have to wrangle 500 participants.
I had over 30 people helping me out behind the scenes, and I met up with all of them at 2:00 PM to get organized. At 3:00 the agents at large started arriving. I was hoping for somewhere between 100 and 200 people and it came out to right about 160. As is becoming more common at my larger missions, I didn't know many of the participants personally. It was a diverse group of folks. Someone even came dressed as a UPS employee (for all I know, he was a UPS employee.)
I hopped on the megaphone and briefed the crowd on our mission. The most important thing was for everyone to keep a straight face and refuse to break character. If asked by a stranger on the train, everyone was instructed to say they "forgot" their pants and did not know the others. Several newspaper photographers had shown up uninvited, and I instructed them on the importance of keeping their cameras hidden until everyone had their pants off. I had my own team of photographers and DV cameramen in place already, using duffle bags to conceal their cameras.
Pretty quickly all of the teams were ready, and we headed a few blocks south to the Brooklyn Bridge stop on the 6-train. It's the start of the line, so the train would be mostly empty when we boarded.
The teams entered every other car on the train. The other cars were left empty, save a few strangers and our undercover cameramen.
As the train pulled into the first stop, one agent in each of the five staging cars removed his pants and threw them on the floor. He then exited the car and entered the target car in front of him. The effect for those strangers in the target car is that the agent had been waiting, pantless, on the platform in the middle of January.
At the second stop, another single agent depantsed and transfered to the target car. The pantless agents now riding the same car did not acknowledge each other. We all simply behave as if everything is completely normal. Some agents read the paper; others listen to their iPods. This year I chose to try to fall asleep.
At the third stop two more agents entered. Four enter at the fourth stop, and then groups of eight enter at each consecutive stop until everyone has depantsed. The logistics of the mission worked out perfectly. The train ran like clockwork as agents depantsed and transferred cars. As always, we experienced a wide range of reactions. Mostly people either laughed, smiled, or ignored. A few of the less jaded freaked out and manically tried to figure out what was going on. Throughout it all, we kept a straight face and just kept on riding.
this girl cant stop herself
If you see something, say something
The pantless folks buy a pair of pants, hopefully their own, and put them on.
The pants sellers entered my car at 59th St. I remember thinking that mission had worked out too well: we still had several stops until our final destination at 125th and everyone already had their pants back on. I declined to buy pants immediately in an attempt to stretch out the fun. For some reason, we weren't moving. The train was stalled in the station. Surely this was just another stalled subway train (a very normal occurrence in NYC). This didn't have something to do with us, did it? Several stops earlier the conductor had said over the P.A., "Next stop 23rd Street. There's something crazy going on on this train." He didn't seem angry, just confused. A couple of years ago a conductor told us "This train is not a playground" over the P.A., but nothing came of it. After a few minutes I got up and peaked my head out the door. Far on the other side of the train, all hell had broken loose.
A cop removes an agent from the train and demands know "what is being protested?"
It seems one cop happened to be on the platform, and he happened to notice a large number of pantless riders. Despite there being nothing illegal about appearing in public in underwear, he thought it was a good idea to stop the train. The conductor came over the P.A. and announced, "This train is not in service. Everyone please exit the train and wait for the next one. Due to a police investigation this train is out of service."
Out on the platform everyone on the train walked around in confusion, both IE Agents and normal riders alike. Our delicately orchestrated mission, which was causing no delays, had been transformed into a chaotic mob scene by one cop.
Several agents caught with their pants down were lined up against the platform wall. All of the press that had come along for the ride quickly materialized with their oversized cameras making the scene even crazier.
This, of course, freaked out the cop and he called for backup under the "officer in distress" code. Pretty soon there were about 25 cops on the scene.
All types of cops arrived, including plain clothes cops. One of them was wearing a Mets jacket. They all seemed to be irritated that they had "busted [their] asses" to get down there only to find eight people in their underwear
One of the arresting officers last name was "Panton". No kidding.
Panton.
Missions
January 22nd, 2006
No Pants 2k6
Team Captains: Agents Kula, Barrison, Kinney, Shelktone, Ace$Thugg
Leadoff Riders: Agents Todd, Good, Lovejoy, MacNeil, Shafeek
Pants Sellers: Agents Becket, Walker, Gill, Lathan, Arnheiter, Rodgers, Mercer, Loughran, Kodner
DV Cams: Agents Shafer, EMartin, Chunk, Cavin, Zeigler
Digital Photography: Agents Nicholson, Rainswept, Ries, Winters, Chigirev, Altaffer
Door Watchers: Montague, Wright
Taking off my pants on the subway has become a yearly event for me. It has all of the emotions associated with a real holiday: stress, excitement, joy, laughter. "No Pants" has come a long way since 2002 when for seven consecutive stops on the 6-train, a pantless rider took his pants off in one car, and hurried down to the next car in all his bare-legged glory. We didn't even have our act together enough to take photographs the first year (though the video footage is still my favorite of everything we have on the DVD page). Each year it's gotten larger and more exciting. It's gone from seven white dudes in their 20's to a lovely mix of men and women of different races and ages. It's always a good time for both us and the random strangers we encounter. New friends are made. People laugh and smile. Some ignore us, but I think that's pretty funny too.
Anyway, if you're here for the first time, be sure to check out the the mission reports for the four "No Pants" that came before this, the Fifth Annual No Pants! Subway Ride. You can find them all on our Missions Page.
Heading over to the meet up point, I was nervous. Like years past I had sent out exactly one email promoting "No Pants" to my NYC mailing list, but that list has grown quite a bit over the last year. The details were forwarded all over. The event wound up on the front page of AOL, among other places. It was the fifth time we were doing this, so I didn't really care too much if word got out ahead of time. It's a tradition, not a secret. I was mostly nervous that I would show up and have to wrangle 500 participants.
I had over 30 people helping me out behind the scenes, and I met up with all of them at 2:00 PM to get organized. At 3:00 the agents at large started arriving. I was hoping for somewhere between 100 and 200 people and it came out to right about 160. As is becoming more common at my larger missions, I didn't know many of the participants personally. It was a diverse group of folks. Someone even came dressed as a UPS employee (for all I know, he was a UPS employee.)
Agent UPS
I hopped on the megaphone and briefed the crowd on our mission. The most important thing was for everyone to keep a straight face and refuse to break character. If asked by a stranger on the train, everyone was instructed to say they "forgot" their pants and did not know the others. Several newspaper photographers had shown up uninvited, and I instructed them on the importance of keeping their cameras hidden until everyone had their pants off. I had my own team of photographers and DV cameramen in place already, using duffle bags to conceal their cameras.
In years past we've only used two cars on the train. One "staging car" for the depantsing, and one "target car" for the riding without pants. This year we would be using all ten cars on the train-- five staging and five target cars. The masses were divided up into five groups and each group was assigned a "Team Captain" (some of our most senior and trusted agents). The captains divided up their groups into smaller groups, assigning everyone a particular stop in which they would depants.
Pretty quickly all of the teams were ready, and we headed a few blocks south to the Brooklyn Bridge stop on the 6-train. It's the start of the line, so the train would be mostly empty when we boarded.
The teams entered every other car on the train. The other cars were left empty, save a few strangers and our undercover cameramen.
Agent EMartin films with a camera sticking out of his bag
As the train pulled into the first stop, one agent in each of the five staging cars removed his pants and threw them on the floor. He then exited the car and entered the target car in front of him. The effect for those strangers in the target car is that the agent had been waiting, pantless, on the platform in the middle of January.
I was leadoff man in my car
At the second stop, another single agent depantsed and transfered to the target car. The pantless agents now riding the same car did not acknowledge each other. We all simply behave as if everything is completely normal. Some agents read the paper; others listen to their iPods. This year I chose to try to fall asleep.
At the third stop two more agents entered. Four enter at the fourth stop, and then groups of eight enter at each consecutive stop until everyone has depantsed. The logistics of the mission worked out perfectly. The train ran like clockwork as agents depantsed and transferred cars. As always, we experienced a wide range of reactions. Mostly people either laughed, smiled, or ignored. A few of the less jaded freaked out and manically tried to figure out what was going on. Throughout it all, we kept a straight face and just kept on riding.
If you see something, say something
Once all of the pantless riders are in place, two "Pants Sellers" enter each car. They annouce they have pants for $1 and proceed to make sales.
The pantless folks buy a pair of pants, hopefully their own, and put them on.
The pants sellers entered my car at 59th St. I remember thinking that mission had worked out too well: we still had several stops until our final destination at 125th and everyone already had their pants back on. I declined to buy pants immediately in an attempt to stretch out the fun. For some reason, we weren't moving. The train was stalled in the station. Surely this was just another stalled subway train (a very normal occurrence in NYC). This didn't have something to do with us, did it? Several stops earlier the conductor had said over the P.A., "Next stop 23rd Street. There's something crazy going on on this train." He didn't seem angry, just confused. A couple of years ago a conductor told us "This train is not a playground" over the P.A., but nothing came of it. After a few minutes I got up and peaked my head out the door. Far on the other side of the train, all hell had broken loose.
A cop removes an agent from the train and demands know "what is being protested?"
It seems one cop happened to be on the platform, and he happened to notice a large number of pantless riders. Despite there being nothing illegal about appearing in public in underwear, he thought it was a good idea to stop the train. The conductor came over the P.A. and announced, "This train is not in service. Everyone please exit the train and wait for the next one. Due to a police investigation this train is out of service."
Out on the platform everyone on the train walked around in confusion, both IE Agents and normal riders alike. Our delicately orchestrated mission, which was causing no delays, had been transformed into a chaotic mob scene by one cop.
Several agents caught with their pants down were lined up against the platform wall. All of the press that had come along for the ride quickly materialized with their oversized cameras making the scene even crazier.
This, of course, freaked out the cop and he called for backup under the "officer in distress" code. Pretty soon there were about 25 cops on the scene.
All types of cops arrived, including plain clothes cops. One of them was wearing a Mets jacket. They all seemed to be irritated that they had "busted [their] asses" to get down there only to find eight people in their underwear.
One of the arresting officers last name was "Panton". No kidding. Panton.
Eight Improv Everywhere Agents were detained. Six of those were handcuffed and taken downtown in a police van. Despite breaking no laws and causing no disorder, they were all charged with "Disorderly Conduct" and issued a summons to court.
Let's be clear about this. It's not illegal to appear in public in your underwear in New York City (or anywhere, I should think.) Most agents were wearing boxer shorts, but even those wearing briefs appeared no more risqu? than folks you can see lying out in Central Park on a sunny summer day.
The eight people charged in this incident were showing about as much skin as two basketball players I spotted on the platform at the same time directly in front of one of the cops.
Perhaps this would have been acceptable had it been an obvious corporate promotion, such as the "National Underwear Day" campaign in New York put on by a clothing website. This cop seemed to see the humor in the corporate stunt:
Without shirts, you would think such a stunt would be even more disorderly!
And certainly not allowed on THE SUBWAY!
Not to mention the fact that the famous "Naked Cowboy" makes a nice living in his underwear every day in the middle of Times Square:
So apart from wearing underwear, I'm not sure what the police had in mind with "Disorderly Conduct". A NY Newsday article on the incident reports, "A police spokesman said: 'People couldn't get on and off the train and [the stunt] created a hazardous condition.'" That's simply not true. Our agents were the last to get on at every stop, and believe me we would have known had someone been unable to get on the train and wound up stranded, pantless on a platform. The hazardous condition was created when one cop made the decision to evacuate a train that was otherwise running very orderly indeed.
I won't go into the details of what happened to the "Improv Everywhere 8" who were detained. You'll be able to read first hand accounts from them below in the Agent Reports section.
Amid the chaos, some agents got back on the train and headed up to 125th. Others headed back down to our starting point, Brooklyn Bridge, throwing an impromptu pantless party on the way home, complete with singing and lollipops distributed by one generous agent.
Eventually everyone found his way back to our meeting point. Missing pants were found and new friends were made. A few folks didn't feel like putting their pants back on, even in the 40-degree weather outdoors.
Thanks to the police, the mission made headlines. The Associated Press coverage appeared in several languages in papers all over the world. The publicity has been nice, but it will remain bittersweet until our eight agents have their cases dropped. I don't see how anything else could happen, considering they committed no crime.
Perhaps next year I'll have to be a little bit more discreet about the details of the Sixth Annual No Pants! Subway Ride. Although, had I kept it quiet this year, far fewer folks would have been able to participate, and nothing makes me happier than seeing an Improv Everywhere agent on his first mission smiling and making new friends. I guess for next year's holiday, I could at least avoid posting notices in the subway:
________________________________________________
VIDEO:
(edited by
Agent EMartin)
