The Boston Traveler

One week ago yesterday, on Saturday, January 12th, intrepid commuters in the Boston area took to the T without their pants for the city’s first ever No Pants! Subway Ride.

The Travel and Culture Channel here at b5media did an excellent job providing multistate coverage of the Improv Everywhere event, which broke out of its New York confines in 2008 for the first time in its nearly decade-long history.

As a result of the ambitious international reach, pantsless riders stormed the public subway systems in no less than ten different locations, including New York (of course), Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Portland (Oregon), Washington (DC), Salt Lake City, and San Francisco in the United States; Adelaide in Australia; and Toronto in Canada.

One of the rules for participating in the orchestrated prank was to not bring along a camera. There really was no need, as the dozens of videos currently circulating on the Web to commemorate the historic occasion confirm. The extensive footage ranges from participant-made YouTube fare to major network news coverage by such venerable (or at least well-known) media outlets as CNN, Fox News, and NBC.

If you’d heard beforehand about certain brave individuals’ mad rush to ride the trains en masse with undergarments proudly showing but not much else since, I’ve got a treat for you. Take a look at the following YouTube videos after the jump to get a visual idea of what transpired during Boston’s No Pants 2k8 subway stunt.

It looks like the guys and gals had a truly great time, although I do agree with many that the whole affair would have been that much more entertaining if it hadn’t been so widely publicized ahead of time. About the only people who seemed not to know what was happening were the few tourists passing through town, the news-challenged, the computer-deprived, and the chronic shut-ins who were only out for their once-a-month journey into civilization. Maybe next year, organizers can throw everyone off by arranging a Surprise No Pants 2k9 Subway Ride worldwide.

Note: If you want to see what went down in some of the other participating regions, just search YouTube using the terms “no pants 2k8” or mosey on over to peruse the numerous posts at Improv Everywhere.

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