Yesterday afternoon, thousands of straphangers gathered at various subway rides to participate in Improv Everywhere’s 11th Annual No-Pants Subway Ride. Although I participated one year, I didn’t even bother to give the event any press beforehand. It’s a stale idea that no longer carries with it any element of fun, surprise or prank simply because people without pants now outnumber people wearing pants on the subway when the times comes. AT&T’s flash mob commercial is more original than that.
I’m not the only one who finds the annual event past its prime. Over at Gothamist, John Del Signore urges the organizers to just give it up already. Generally, he writes, we have either no or too much desire to see each other in our underwear. I like the money ‘graph though: “It’s not edgy if hundreds of people are doing it. It’s conformity, not originality, no matter what message you’re advertising on your ass. Want to be bold and daring? Take off your pants and ride the subway on any other day than this. Dropping trou and following the herd as part of a premeditated Facebook status update isn’t outrageous.”
Perhaps Del Signore and I need to lighten up or perhaps you kids need to get off our lawns. Either way, if and when this event becomes but a footnote in the history of the subways, I won’t shed too many tears or my pants.
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