"Improve Everywhere" (www.improveeverywhere.com) is a kind of community that arranges a kind of collective practical jokes, where a group of persons agree to meet at a place in order to perform something out of the ordinary. At six times, they have gathered onboard a NYC subway train without pants. The picture above is from their fifth meeting, Jan. 22ND 2006. The sixth and most recent gathering ocurred Jan. 13TH this year. Here follows a summary of the fifth event in year 2006, based on information from www.improveverywhere.com. Over 160 people showed up for the event, including one UPS (United States Postal Service) employee. The participants were told to explain their missing pants by saying that they "forgot to put them on", if someone asked. The participants were divided into five groups, each assigned a team captain. Every such group were then divided into smaller groups, each given a certain station, at which they would put of their pants when the train passed it. All the teams entered the train at the beginning of the line, making sure the train would almost completely empty. Every other car in the train was designated a "stage car", and the other cars designated "target car". The teams entered all the stage cars. At every stop, one participant in every stage car would take of his pants, throw them on the floor and enter a target car, making the impression with the other non-participating riders that he entered the train pant-less from the platform and not from a neighboring car. One of the leaders of the event writes on (www.improveverywhere.com: Mostly people either laughed, smiled, or ignored. A few of the less jaded freaked out and manically tried to figure out what was going on. Throughout it all, we kept a straight face and just kept on riding. Once all of the participants had taken off their pants and entered the target cars, "pants sellers" entered the target cars with the participants pants, selling them for 1$ each. When all the participants had their pants back on, suddenly the train stopped. The previously cited leader writes: The train was stalled in the station. Surely this was just another stalled subway train (a very normal occurrence in NYC). This didn’t have something to do with us, did it? Several stops earlier the conductor had said over the P.A., “Next stop 23rd Street. There’s something crazy going on on this train.” He didn’t seem angry, just confused. A couple of years ago a conductor told us “This train is not a playground” over the P.A., but nothing came of it. However, it later showed that a cop onboard the train had noticed a bunch of pantless riders and grown suspicious. He took one of the participants of the train, demanding to know what was being protested. The cop stopped the train, and had the conductor announcing over the P.A: This train is not in service. Everyone please exit the train and wait for the next one. Due to a police investigation this train is out of service. This was the beginning of the end of the whole event, about which one of the leaders write: Out on the platform everyone on the train walked around in confusion, both IE Agents and normal riders alike. Our delicately orchestrated mission, which was causing no delays, had been transformed into a chaotic mob scene by one cop. Several agents caught with their pants down were lined up against the platform wall. All of the press that had come along for the ride quickly materialized with their oversized cameras making the scene even crazier. This, of course, freaked out the cop and he called for backup under the “officer in distress” code. Pretty soon there were about 25 cops on the scene.All types of cops arrived, including plain clothes cops. One of them was wearing a Mets jacket. They all seemed to be irritated that they had “busted [their] asses” to get down there only to find eight people in their underwear. One of the arresting officers last name was “Panton”. No kidding. Panton.Eight Improv Everywhere Agents were detained. Six of those were handcuffed and taken downtown in a police van. Despite breaking no laws and causing no disorder, they were all charged with “Disorderly Conduct” and issued a summons to court.
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