But the terrorists would have pants on, right?

Isn't this another case of life imitating Python? I vaguely recall a pantless busriding skit.

/But then again, I am taking those little white pills.

patriot act is the new godwin?

I was already afraid to sit on the subway seats in New York before. Now with the pantsless revolution... ewwww.

So..... pantless is bad now? Note to self, put pants on.

*********Police said they detained eight participants at the Fourth Precinct and charged them with misdemeanor disorderly conduct before issuing them desk appearance tickets and releasing them early Sunday evening.
A police spokesman said: "People couldn't get on and off the train and [the stunt] created a hazardous condition."*******

Yea???? Prove it copper.
Judge don't care about this. Its a waste of his time. So hopefully he goes after the cops and makes them do something really bad...Like work and stop actual crime.

bad cops

doglover

it's not that bad, you develop an imunity to whatevers on there... i hope. someone once wet themselves sitting maybe two feet away from me on the 6 train.

/not available for comment

Waste of time; for both parties.

Stupid tag more approperate?

Ooh, boy...they are SUCH rebels! Challenging people's consciousness! I wish I was cool enough to be in an Art project like this!

Not. The Russian Dadaists weren't kidding, 100 years ago, when they said "Art is dead." I leave you with a quote from Ira Glass, host of NPR's This American Life:

"See, but I don't like that whole "art should challenge you" thing. Because I don't feel like art actually does challenge you. I was a semiotics major at Brown, and there's this idea that stories are better, books are better, and movies are better if they cocked you off your axis and you were completely disoriented and you'd really have to rethink everything. Nobody has that experience, actually. Also, it's not interesting."

how could you arrest people for this? i mean, as long as they're wearing underwear, is it really breaking any law?

Train car full of 1/2 dressed women = subplot to at least 3 pornos.
Train car full of 1/2 dressed men = nothing anybody wants to see.

I leave you with a quote from Ira Glass, host of NPR's This American Life:

"See, but I don't like that whole "art should challenge you" thing. Because I don't feel like art actually does challenge you. I was a semiotics major at Brown, and there's this idea that stories are better, books are better, and movies are better if they cocked you off your axis and you were completely disoriented and you'd really have to rethink everything. Nobody has that experience, actually. Also, it's not interesting."

Translation of Glass's quote: "I don't get it, so I will fear it, belittle it and deny its value."

'Cause, y'know, This American Life is just soooo avant garde and out there. (Ahemn).

Haha, I love those guys.
More info&previous misions on ImprovEverywhere.com

Read it again - he was a semiotics major.

The usual defense from Arty types - "If you can't understand what I'm doing, then YOU'RE NOT IN THE IN-CROWD! You want to be in the in-crowd, don't you? Then pretend like you understand what riding the subway in your underwear accomplishes."

yay! pa!

Naked Man: I'm not ashamed of my body.
Jerry: That's your problem. You should be.

This American Life is distributed by Public Radio International, not NPR.

/pedant

It's all a gimmick.

Improv Everywhere should be a TV Show!
We think so too. If you have a contact at a television network, by all means tell us about it here.

So this guy who's supposedly all artsy and crap like that is just trying to be the next Johnny Knoxville.

Seems these guys jumped the gun since no pants day isn't for a few months.

Get the hell away from me, goddamn naked man.
/obscure?

Butthole Surfers obscure?

/not so

Situationists? I thought they were all dead.

Only in NY baby!

I once got lured into dropping trou for a picture by Conference Services down at Bill&Mary...

/good times
//what's wrong with pantslessnessness?

I went to school with the guys who started this. It's the second time they've been arrested - check out their website for info on the U2 stunt court appearance.

I've been following their site for years, but the bigger it gets, the less funny it is. Still, they have some classic gems - the Starbucks repeating loop is still about the funniest thing I've ever read.

Almost went to the NoPants stunt this year. Kind of glad I didn't. The last thing I need is pictures of my bare legs on the AP. What's with all the photographers this year? Kind of takes away the subtlety of it.

These folks don't proport to be "artists" creating "social commentary art" or anything pretentious like that.

They do these things to have fun, and to put smiles on people's faces.

Read about their Missions and see that it's all for fun. Not trying to shake the very foundation of life as we know it. Just break up the tedium of an otherwise routine existence.

Maybe next year the website can tell people to jump off a cliff.

Hilarity would ensue as all the lemming-minded people gather chanting "they told me to do it".

"Creative art is intercourse, in which the artist renders emotional his audience [...] But it's up to the artist to use language that can be understood. Most of these jokers don't want to use a language you and I can learn; they would rather sneer because we 'fail' to see what they are driving at. If anything. Obscurity is the refuge of incompetence."

Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land

Dang, I'm sorry they got "detained." Improv Everywhere has perpetrated some good stunts and I'd hate to see them stop because of legal issues.

Of course, they were charged with "disorderly conduct," which is a catch-all that the police use when they can't charge you with anything substantial. I hope they fight it.

The NYPD, it seems, didn't appreciate the joke.

The NYPD as thuggish, humorless twats? That's impossible!

my friends and i used to do something like this (much less organized, of course), and it wasn't to make a grand, artistic statement. i just thought stuff like this was fun, and that some people might find it entertaining. i love how people search for reasons to get offended when others do things they don't understand.

Oh, if only the NYPD would detain and ticket the biotches every time I "can't get on and off the train". I'm lookin' at you, ancient four-foot tall Chinese woman!

You get hip-checked for a seat you didn't even want daily by these ladies... well, it gets old fast.

The event's purpose was hardly clear...

Now THAT's responsible reporting.

Snarling traffic, impersonating an officer, all in the name of creating a perplexed crowd. They are all into amusing themselves, and if they can sell a DVD, all the better! Have all the faces in the video signed a release? Since they are the real stars of the vignette, do they get a royalty?

Everyone with a camcorder thinks they can have their own Candid Camera show. Surreptitious porn, pranks, etc.

"Performance art." Meh!

Give me real comedy, please!

Sorry, in my rant, I forgot to mention I went to their site and saw the "suicide jumper" stunt.

Forgot for a minute that this was an American story - it was so much more interesting when I read it as a UK story where pants = underwear as opposed to US where pants = trousers.
Combine the two and I'll never sit on the subway again without a thick sheet of tarp underneath my posterior.

/obligatory post brought to you by ImageShack

The last thing I need is pictures of my bare legs on the AP. What's with all the photographers this year? Kind of takes away the subtlety of it.

WHAT??? You're kidding. You mean to say that they tipped off the mainstream media BEFORE they pulled their stunt Art exhibit?

The really sad thing is, the Associated Press has nothing better to do with their photographers than send them to some meaningless, stupid stunt Art display by a bunch of talentless asshats talented youngsters, who will surely provide the future of art exhibits in America.

meepmeep, I'm going to get kicked out of the house if you do that again.

I've always maintainted that when something is called a "police incident" on the News, it's because it represents normal, peacful activity that is disrupted and distorted and disturbed by police.

/police suck, society sucks

How about asking the maestro and Kramer for a quote?!

I welcome our new pantsless overlords.

He majored in semiotics? You mean people can actually major in stuff like that?

No wonder the country is going down the toilet. What's wrong with majoring in useful subjects like Physics, Engineering, Mathematics or Cosmetology.

"People couldn't get on and off the train and [the stunt] created a hazardous condition."

It's possible to block a doorway by merely not wearing pants? Wow. How exactly does that work?

duckman66: [no shirt, no shoes, no service]

Chuck Norris went to Macdonalds with no shirt and no shoes, and was granted service.

I will close my tags, I will close my tags, I will close my tags...