No Pants 2K8!

By Margaret Lyons in Arts & Entertainment on Jan 9, 2008 8:17PM

No Pants 2K8, a no-slacks spectacle that was started by the New York-based performance comedy group, Improv Everywhere, is upon us, and you know what that means: Drop trou, pronto!

Not so fast...it's not quite as simple as that; there are some basic procedural guidelines. The eventual seminudity begins on Saturday at 2:00 P.M. at the Granville Red Line station and disembarks at Monroe. According to the Facebook page, about 50 people have confirmed that they will be going pants-less on Saturday and about as many "maybes," so you won't have to go it alone. [Ed note: It looks like initial plans were to meet at the Loyola stop, but local organizers moved it to the less-popular Granville stop.]

The tradition has been going on for at least five years in New York, but this year, No Pants subway rides are branching out to just about every American city that has a subway (plus Toronto and Adelaide, Australia), and even some that don't. Is this just the latest attempt by New Yorkers to reinforce their perceived status as cultural gatekeepers? Perhaps, but that's no excuse to keep your pants on.

Guidelines, from the Chicago No Pants 2K8 Facebook group:

You can wear socks, shoes, boots, coats, gloves, shirts and hats - just no pants. (Thongs probably not a great idea if you don't want to get jumped or thrown in jail) The hard part (aside from not catching something) is to be completely deadpan about it. You pretend like you don't know any of the other pants-less riders. You should be acting like it is perfectly normal to have been waiting for the subway without your pants!

Wannabe "agents," as IE participants are called, should practice being completely deadpan, because there's one and only one way to respond if someone asks you why you're not wearing pants. "I forgot them." --Mark Boyer

Pants-less Man via Improv Everywhere