Pantless subway rider - No Pants Subway Ride Toronto

NO PANTS SUBWAY RIDE: Toronto subway riders break the routine of the daily commute

Last updated: October 20th, 2018

As my train pulls away from Toronto’s lime green St. Patrick subway station and fades to the darkness of the underground tunnels, it’s my turn to strip. Bending down to take off my shoes, I bite my inner lip to suppress the urge to laugh, then take off my shoes and pull off my jeans, revealing my black boxer briefs and wintry pale legs. I continue to stand in the doorway as if nothing happened, glancing casually at the many subway passengers’ faces.

Subway riders are normally in a trance-like state of disinterest, following the unwritten “no eye contact” rule. But on this day of the second annual No Pants Subway Ride, the patrons of Toronto’s TTC subway system have a hard time keeping their eyes averted. Here and there they glance up at myself and the other pantless subway riders, most quickly looking down again. Why drop the drawers in public? According to the event organizer, Cole Banning (aka Agent ColeSlaw) of urban prank group Improv in Toronto, “The missions are a chance for people to step out of that everyday funk and try something really weird and different, that normally they would never attempt.”

New York City based Improv Everywhere came up with the No Pants Subway Ride idea in 2002. Their first ride only drew seven participants. Since then it’s grown to 1200 in NYC alone and is now coordinated on the same day in 21 other cities, drawing an additional 1000 people.

Wannabe actors, voyeurs, exhibitionists and subcultural enthusiasts are heavily in attendance. In fact, fun-seekers of all ages and walks of life are represented in the Toronto underground this Saturday, with the highest proportion being of student age. Katia Petrenko, like most, sees the event as an opportunity to have some fun on the subway. “Winter is depressing, and stuff like this puts a smile on people’s faces, and makes for a good story,” she tells me.

The 300 of us are spread over different trains, all riding the yellow route through the downtown core. Appearing to be a random prank, the strippers are organized into several groups, each given different times to take off their pants.  The name “Improv in Toronto” implies an improvised act, which this is not. But, according to the group, the improvisation comes from improv acting in public places where the actors have no idea what people’s responses will be. In the briefing, the agents tell us to stay in character at all times. If someone asks us why we’re taking off our pants, we’re to say something like “It’s getting hot in here.” If caught already pantless the suggestion “We forgot our pants at home” works wonders at getting out of uncomfortable situations.

Boxers, boxer briefs, tighty whities, Spiderman Fruit of the Loom and the occasional skimpy lingerie are all on display on this frosty -9C winter day. For the most part, people weren’t showing any more skin than you’d see displayed in the summer months and definitely nothing less than you’d see on a beach. It’s the undressing in winter on a subway train that makes the scant clothing into a scene.

It’s a scene subway riders start to warm up to after a few stops go by and all the agents have taken off their pants. After getting the prank, many start to feel comfortable looking at the pantless agents. Cameras are flashing, people laughing. It seems to be a good time for all. A few subway passengers even show their solidarity by ripping off their own pants.

Banning assures me that the bottom line is fun. “We don’t want to push our opinion or feelings towards an issue on anyone else,” he tells me. “We just do our missions for the fun and pure joy of doing something like riding a subway with no pants.” Based on the people I talk to it does seem to be mostly about fun. After the event, I take a closer look at the group’s website. “We are focused on creating comedy for comedy’s sake and staging events that purposefully have no explicit reason behind them, other than the goal of spreading chaos and joy throughout the world.” It’s that unique blend of chaos and joy that draws me.

While in high school I rode that subway for two long hours a day. Seeing the bored faces and monotonous routine of people moving through the day with complete indifference agitated me in some way.  The longer I rode it the more disconnected I felt. It wasn’t so much the subway riding, but the whole idea of life as routine. I like the subway and feel there’s a lot of good to routine too. It’s getting lost in routine, getting lost in the automatic way of living that didn’t agree with me. The subway symbolizes  getting caught up in the 9 to 5 until retirement day comes, then suddenly realizing 35 years just passed in what felt like an instant.

Subway riders looked up at something different from their ordinary subway ride on this day. If even for an instant, this special moment in what would otherwise have been a banal activity shows that any part of the day, no matter how mundane, can be experienced with meaning and turned into something fun. In the hurried lifestyle of city living, it’s all too easy to rush through experiences—sleeping, getting ready for work, working, eating, commuting—always striving towards the next item on the agenda. Though the No Pants Subway Ride appears to be a random bit of chaos, it makes the point that by breaking routine, new options are available. It proves that we truly can make something from nothing.

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