Yes, you heard that correctly. Without pants. See, Sunday was the day that Capitol Improv did its annual “No Pants Metro Ride”. It’s the exact same idea as Improv Everywhere‘s No Pants Subway Ride in New York City, but this was in DC, on our subway.
The group met up at Hancock Park in DC, which is on the next block from the north entrance to L’Enfant Plaza station. As demonstrated in this photo, we had a good amount of people participating:
Then this was the course:
Basically, people were advised to stay within the area defined by these stations. This kept the no-pants ride mostly in the underground areas of the system, and in places where one can change lines and move in a different direction. The southernmost boundary was originally Pentagon, but after a brief discussion about the fact that photography is illegal at Pentagon (due to the station’s being on Pentagon property), and the desire to not have a no-photo zone at a turn-point, the endpoint was changed to Pentagon City. After all, Pentagon City is a shopping district, and not a military installation. Also notice that Fort Totten was one of the places listed. Owing to the very cold weather on Sunday, I kind of doubt anyone went to the outdoor Fort Totten station.
So the mission went like this: go into the station, and wait for a train. Then once you are on board and the train starts moving, take your pants off. Pants then need to go completely out of sight. If a person asks you why you’re not wearing pants, act surprised, as if you just forgot to put pants on. If the police ask you to do anything, do it. Then at 5:00, start making your way towards Dupont for the afterparty.
And so it began. And before you ask, I didn’t take my pants off. I was there strictly to photograph, and that’s what I did. In following the no-pants riders around, my path around the system went like this:
Yellow Line, CAF 5099, L’Enfant Plaza to Pentagon
Blue Line, Alstom 6142, Pentagon to Smithsonian
Blue Line, Rohr 1185, Smithsonian to Metro Center
Red Line, Breda 4009, Metro Center to Dupont Circle
Red Line, Breda 4033, Dupont Circle to Union Station
Red Line, Rohr 1089, Union Station to Farragut North
Red Line, Alstom 6109, Farragut North to Gallery Pl-Chinatown
Yellow Line, CAF 5099, Gallery Pl-Chinatown to L’Enfant Plaza
So we were a bit all over the place. The group was fairly concentrated early on, and then was more dispersed as the event continued. That was the plan all along, since by being more dispersed, it looked more natural than a large crowd with no pants on (followed by some photographers).
And then of course, I got photos of people in their panties on the Metro. If you don’t like seeing photos of people in their underwear, may I recommend looking at pictures of Metro without people in their underwear. But yes, people really did ride the Metro without pants:
As soon as the doors closed, the first group to board a train, a Green Line train to Greenbelt, started peeling off their pants. My group, still on the platform, was cheering them on.
Then on CAF 5099, running Yellow Line to Huntington, my group peeled its pants off, too.
Waiting on a station platform for another train… with no pants on.
The idea of this ride was really just to “act natural” without pants. Thus this woman took to reading a book…
The reactions, meanwhile, were as I expected, with some quietly snapping photos…
…while others interacted.
On the escalator…
And reading the newspaper while waiting for a train.
Studying the subway map.
And then at the end of the event, people put their pants back on and continued on with their day.
All in all, a fun time was had by all. DC is a great city, and it’s good to know that the folks in DC can prank their fellow citizens just as well as the folks in New York can.