100 Things Restaurant Servers Must Stop Doing!
Former Commish Kerik Cries During Court Appearance
Bloomberg Speaks Out On Anti-Hugging Cabbie
Shootings At Fort Hood, TX Army Base: 12 Dead, 31 Wounded
UWS Protests Puppy Mill Pups at Store
In order to make sure everyone knows how wacky New York is, the press descended upon Improv Everywhere's No Pants 2k6 ride yesterday afternoon. The NY Post, Daily News and Newsday - as well as the AP - all filed reports about pranksters trying to make people crack a smile on a subway during an otherwise routine Sunday afternoon. The press was probably disappointed there wasn't another transit strike, so this was a good second option ("Human interest angle - should people really wear pants if they don't want to? Or are your legs too winter-white?"). However, the police got involved, "detaining" some of the pantless (but not naked) and saying it was because "People couldn't get on and off the train and [the stunt] created a hazardous condition." Gothamist finds that NYPD claim to be BS, because if that really were the case, the NYPD should be arresting people at 59th Street Columbus Circle and tourists at Times Square on a very regular basis - they do not understand the unspoken subway contract of letting people GET OFF the subway car first before piling in.
Gothamist wonders if the various Improv Everywhere agents mentioned the Fake U2 concert to the NYPD; back then, the police seemed to find the joke funny, but a Korean "The Edge" will do that, we guess.
More comments from Improv Everywhere and more links on yesterday's post. Gothamist is having trouble with comments and trackbacks - we'll have them fixed ASAP so you can tell us what you saw while pantless what we spelled wrong.
Photographs from seanich's fabulous Flickr set
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Well at least this time the merry hipster pranksters didn't trash the subway car like they did during that ill-advised Gothamist-hyped tea party. Really, you guys, if you're so cool you should be able to spot that fine line between stupid and clever.
Well, this looked Clever to me and I Laughed out loud reading about it.
"Hipsters"...
Arrested for creating a hazardous situation on the Subway.
As Jimmy Breslin used to say, beautiful, just beautiful.
I wish a cop had been around on the #2 this morning as I tried to get around the guy with his iPod blasting while carrying his humongous art case (no doubt used to lug pretentious and bad art) and leaning against the pole as I tried to get out of the train. There's a hazardous condition... I was about to kill the guy.
But at least he was wearing pants.
That photo of the pantless ones being taken away in handcuffs is both amazing and chilling. Was the photog arrested, too?
While I appreciate the sentiment behind these types of events, that picture of the media people crowded on the platform seems to belie the notion that there was anything "improvisational" about this event. More like a bit of silly fun with a large dose of group aggrandizement and self promotion. That's cool, but in the meantime it resulted in the disruption of regular subway service, which is total jackassery. People need the subway to go between home and work, meet people, pick up kids, etc. I hate to be a killjoy, but if you have any idea that your prank is going to be inconveniencing others significantly, don't do it. It doesn't matter that the NYPD is overreacting to an insignificant piece of foolishness. It's pretty reasonable to expect they would if one creates a media circus on public transit, so, again, don't do it. I love this type of stuff, but I can certainly sympathize with the non-participating rider that wanted to kick someone's ass for halting his train for a bit of fun.
I suspect it was the media circus and police presence that ensued that disrupted the subway more than the pantless event itself. Also, people who enter the subway before allowing others to exit: my #1 pet peeve. Thanks for bringing that to light because it gives me an anger-induced coronary everyday.
With all due respect to your points, Dave, and from someone who usually supports the cops, I think it was the NYPD who inconvenienced the average riders that day. The guys without the pants didn't pull the train out of service, nor was that their goal.
And after all, it should be pretty obivous that they weren't carrying weapons, if you know what I mean...
I was there. Most of the media showed up uninvited. The guy in charge instructed them to keep their cameras discreet and hidden. It wasn't until the cops broke out the handcuffs that all of their big cameras came out. That's when it became a circus. Also, these guys have done this prank every year for 5 years (this was my first). It's never been a problem-- this is a case of one cop freaking out and halting a train because he couldn't see the humor in people wearing boxers in January.
hmmm, one subway passenger found stabbed this am and last week a dead passenger. How bout allocating cops to those areas. I guess being Dead in the subway don't warrant a train being held at the station.This pantless crap is no big deal. College students do it when the weather breaks 32 degrees.
Oh, I bet the cops were pissed that they missed their day of football. Notice the Met's jacket on one of the arresting officers.
Dave, it's a fair point - I was there and I think the media presence was bigger than it ought to have been, but there's something that's not clear from that (rather fantastic) photo: the five or six news outlets that were there were simply sitting in the subway cars (maybe one or two photographers per car) and snapping a few photos - most without flash, even. The reporters had spoken to people before and would likely have spoken to people after, but for all intents and purposes, were barely more outstanding than the average commuter.
When the police show up and there's a photo op like that shot of the IE Agents lined against the wall, they understandably go into an entirely different mode.
I'd think we'd all have liked less press, but I appreciate Tim's perspective - we were really low-keying it until the NYPD showed.
Maybe I'm just cranky b/c it's Monday and I'm still bitter about the strike fiasco. I like my subway service. I need my subway service. Hope I didn't offend anyone involved.
No doubt that the cops were heavy handed and wrong about arresting people and I enjoy the work of the people behind No Pants, but I think they have made a mistake by doing the No Pants event over and over. It was funny the first time and there was no reason to keep doing it. They document their work on video and photos so they shouldn't duplicate their events as it dilutes and defeats the impact of the original event. It's creepy that a horde of press photogs are camped out waiting for the pranksters. The element of surprise seems lost in this particular event. I hope they continue doing good work, but stop announcing events ahead of time. If they've run out of ideas, maybe it's time to pack up and move on.
Pugsley,
Stop announcing events ahead of time? Maybe for the web-jaded this event was old news, but I saw hundreds of MTA riders that thought this was a fresh new spectacle.
I saw several photographers disobey Charlie's request to contain the shooting early-on -- the group can hardly be blamed for that.
Agent Kelley
Tourists are incredibly civil on the subway. How about arresting all those Asians (illegal "tourists") who never seem to grasp the concept that there will be more space for them on the train if they let the people exit first?!?!?!?!
Agent Kelley - I think you are a captive to your own success. I wasn't there, but from what I can see here is that the horde of photographers and gawkers turned the event into a bit of a freak show rather than a improvised shock for the uninformed subway rider. I recall that early on in 'saturday night live' michael o'donoghue (mr. mike) thought that the show had become repetitive and stale and he made efforts to end the show in a viking funeral style. He didn't succeed and sure enough the show became everything it used to make fun of. I'm not saying you're at that point yet, but sometime the viking funeral approach should be taken before the No Pants event becomes sponsored by Levis and KMart.
This event was hyped all over blog and word-of-mouth. How could you not expect press to come out? No provisions for a lone patrolman on the train even?
The theatre of this event includes the press, the cops and the detainment. Why stick to the rigid confines of your set-up "i forgot my pants" when the circumstances had changed and you've got people taking pictures and being interviewed.
Why the shock at the cops arrival? Lack of preparation.
Must of been a slow news day for the press to come out on a Sunday. That or Gawkers really have no life when they have to follow around a bunch of guys in their underwear.
C'mon, there was Fooooootballllllll!
The problem was that Improv Everywhere overadvertised it. This event appeared on my company's "fun things to do this weekend" notice. No wonder the media and the cops were waiting for it.
Hey, it's me, the dude who organized this. I do about 8 events a year and there's only one that I like to repeat, "No Pants". It's just a fun thing to do on a Sunday afternoon that hopefully brings a smile to the faces of those who encounter it. It's been done four times before, so I didn't see the need to keep it a secret.
To "hype" this event, I sent one email to my mailing list. From there it was forwarded on and on and ended up on tons of blogs and in some magazines and newspapers. Someone from the AP called me and asked if she could take photos. I had a long talk with her explaining how important it was to be discreet so that the normal riders didn't notice her. She did just that and was really awesome to work with. When I got to our meeting point, about six other press photographers were there. I gave them the same instructions to be discreet, and they did a reasonable job of staying out of the way until the cop stopped the train. Once the handcuffs were out, they started taking photos like crazy. I can't really blame them-- it was a sight to see.
Anyway, for us, "No Pants" is annual tradition, and it's something that I like to share with as many people as possible. Over 160 people dropped their pants this year, most of them folks I've never met before. They had fun. Most everyone on the train either laughed or ignored us. It's never that big of a deal. It's not groundbreaking art or a political statement; it's just a fun, silly event. One cop freaked out and called in 25 more. Eight folks were detained and summonsed for being in their boxers. Pretty lame.
I guess next year I won't send out an email for this 10 days in advance. Perhaps I'll wait until the last minute. That will mean less media (a good thing) but also less participants having fun (a bad thing).
There will be photos and video and detailed accounts from the key participants up on our site in a week or two.
thanks ctodd,
A smile or a laugh in the subway is a good thing.
It really is not a big deal when there's public urinators all over the subway. Some going in two's and in between cars? I wondered why?
I was there on Sunday. I think the inconveniencing riders argument is valid. It's true -- delays suck and nobody (including us) was happy about the train being taken out of service. But the time between when the train pulled into 59th St. and when a new train was brought in was only about 10 minutes. Which, yes, I realize is an eternity when you are late for work, but the event was on a Sunday in order, I'm sure, to minimize the potential inconvenience to workers. It's also significantly less than what we're all subjected to on a regular basis by less fun causes: the MTA's ineptitude, mysterious fictitious "train congestion," unannounced reroutings, people getting drunk and falling in front of trains, homeless people starting fires to keep warm, etc. The subway, generally speaking, kind of sucks, which is why it's nice to add some fun to it once in a while.