Hundreds drop their pants for annual ‘no trousers’ tube ride (dailystar.co.uk).
“Pants” in the American sense curiously used in the headline by the British red-top tabloid but then readdressed with Britishness as 10th annual “No Trousers Tube Ride” in the first para which the the London manifestation of the annual No Pants Subway Ride is titled and hosted by the Stiff Upper Lip Society (standard.co.uk), with participants meeting up outside the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square before heading underground to board trains on different Tube lines to spread their urban undies travel adventure across the capital before meeting up again at the Chandos pub just off Trafalgar Square for an after-party.
More than 100 people piled on to the Piccadilly Line, where they struggled to remove their trousers due to the large crowds. Regular Sunday passengers were left bewildered as men and women sat in their brightly-coloured underwear talking or reading, or taking pictures of each other.
Presumably with less manspreading than usually seen on the tube, and probably not quite enough femspreading for not-so-bewildered curiously busy with his hands under his coat chap with nose eagerly raised breathing it all in.
After changing to the Jubilee Line at Green Park, the group got off at Canary Wharf to do some aerobics on the platform before jumping on another train.
With other groups getting off at other London landmarks including Parliament for similar playful undies exhibitionism:
Sisters Tessa and Matilda Deterding said they had come for the first time because they liked the idea behind it.Tessa, 24, from London, said: “We read about it and thought it sounded hilarious. I wasn’t nervous about it.”
But stating that despite the “having a bit of a laugh” sentiment to loosen bewildered passengers “stiff upper lip” her “pants” (British sense meaning undies) chosen so as not to potentially shift the stiff elsewhere:
“I did especially pick out my pants, you have got to pick out a nice opaque one. You don’t want to give too much of a spectacle.”
But not helping much when nose raised, curiously busy with his hands under his coat chap who seemingly decided to stay day on the underground too boarded their tube, arriving at his destination before the doors re-opened.
The No Pants Subway Ride event, featured in Picks before (see related stories below) was initiated by comedic performance art group for hire Improv Everywhere (improveverywhere.com) in New York in 2002 as a prank which has since become a global, Insta-friendly (Instagram) phenomemum and spread to over 60 cities around the globe.
As with the similar but much more bodily overt annual World Naked Bike Ride event the question of legality arises, with it not breaking any laws as long as underwear is worn (standard.co.uk), and there being expectation, with station authorities probably not being as open to a chap or chapess strolling around in their undies at other times:
However, organisers state on the Facebook page that they “want the event to be fun and safe for everyone for many more years to come” and “anybody found to be removing more than their trousers, or acting out personal fantasies in public, will be reported to the British Transport Police, and station authorities.”
With curiously busy with his hands under his coat chap finally removed after six hours as sticky but contented mess at Embankment.
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