Editor's note: The post below contains partial nudity. Obviously.
The daily goal for most human adults is to get home from work and immediately break free from the fabric that imprisons our thighs.
The goal for Improv Everywhere’s No Pants Subway Ride in New York City is a more public version of that daily goal -- while riding the rails of the subway.
Pants are the enemy and pasty legs are the heroes that need to be saved.
[seealso URL=”http://sale-online.click/2015/09/16/underwear-on-rocks/#2wU2sK58c8qh%E2%80%9D%5D%3C/p%3E%3Cp%3ESo, with a penchant for communal semi-nudity, we decided to participate in the No Pants Subway Ride’s 15th year in NYC.
Usually this event occurs in the middle of cold and dreary January. This year, it occurred in the middle of 60-degree January.
Thanks for keeping our bare legs comfy and warm, El Niño.
Ready to publicly disrobe, we arrived in a mob of wide-eyed, grinning strangers. A man with a megaphone stepped onto a bench, letting us know that things were about to get rowdy. Particulars and rules of the ride were explained. We digested about 40% of what he said, but in the spirit of the event and the rain, we went with the flow.
We were led en mass to the 2nd Avenue subway stop where, still fully clothed, we waited for the F train.
Minutes passed without a single train in sight.
Then a half hour.
An hour.
Uncertainty began washing over us.
Something was up. The villainous F train was threatening to crush our hopes of a pants-less commute.
#ServAdv: b/d there is no #F train b/t Church Av & Stillwell Av due, to Con Ed loss of power at Neptune Av. See https://t.co/vhZQ2kZ2vb
— NYCT Subway (@NYCTSubway) January 10, 2016
We checked our phones. Delays. Unrest grew. In an ‘F you’ to the F train, some began taking off their pants in protest, unwilling to operate on the train’s lethargic schedule.
However, most took the delay in lighthearted stride; group chants were started, photos were snapped and a motion was made to take a different train together. The more trustworthy uptown 6 became our beacon of hope and pants-less commuting.
The 6 train finally arrived. It was go time.
Never had we disrobed so publicly, and we felt as if we had to trick our minds into thinking, "This is normal, this is totally normal."
However, it did turn out to seem more normal than we’d thought. Most onlookers already had a sense of the shenanigans from the publicity it has received.
It even had its own Snapchat filters.
While our commuter audience was not as shocked by our bare flesh as we had anticipated, it was hardly a detriment to the experience.
The best moments were the knowing looks and the smiles of recognition, which made us feel an important part of this big, silly, awesome thing.
We experienced some of the friendliest interactions we've ever had in the New York subway system. Bonus: no one tried to grab our butts, which is atypical for a subway ride.
No Pants Subway Ride was one of the most unifying New York moments we’ve ever had. Participants and pants-wearing commuters alike were in on the joke; as for those who had problems with sharing a metal pole with the scantily clad, they seemed to keep their hands to themselves.