No Pants Subway Ride 2013 Minneapolis

The No Pants Subway Ride is an annual global event started by Improv Everywhere in New York in 2002. Although we don’t have subways here in Minnesota, we do have a light rail system that’ll do in a pinch.

Since one of my New Year’s Resolutions is to push myself outside my comfort zone, I couldn’t resist joining in on this event. A few friends agreed to join in the fun, including my friend Beck. Here we are before the ride, still fully clothed.

We met up with about 45 other people to ride the light rail sans-pants. The reason? To create an usual environment that would make people stop and think. The rules are very fight-club-esque – during No Pants, you can’t talk about No Pants. If someone asks you why you’re not wearing any pants, you’re supposed to answer something like “Whoops, guess I forgot them today!” The point is to not give away the gig.

Speaking of No Pants – this wasn’t an obscene attention-getting event. Everyone was required to wear underwear. In fact, our fearless leaders from Plan B told us our underwear should be appropriate enough we’d be cool if our grandma saw us in them. ‘nuff said.

I cheated a little bit since I’m a germ freak and didn’t want my bare thighs touching the seats (hey, it’s public transportation – I don’t know who else’s ass has been on those trains!). I figured since you could still see my tattoos through my tights, that was close enough to bare legs for me. Plus, you can definitely tell I’m not wearing regular pants.

Since I’m a social person, I brought along Cards Against Humanity to play with some of my new No-Pants friends.

We rode the light rail all the way from the Mall of America to downtown Minneapolis and back. We had quite a crowd playing the game with us, too. There’s nothing quite like laughing your butt off with a bunch of near-strangers in their underwear while using public transportation.

I learned something new, too. (Well, I learned lots of things, but this one is appropriate to share.) At the end of the light rail line, they take the train out of service for about 10 minutes. Which means everyone has to get off and wait for the next train. Oh, did I mention it was only 8 degrees out when we stopped downtown?

Besides shivering and freezing, since we weren’t wearing any pants, we used the stop as a chance to take a group photo. Here’s the entire No Pants gang for 2013:

A few more photos of our No Pants fun.

As someone that’s normally very pro-pants, it was a great experience for me. I met some cool people and did something totally out of my normal routine.

Next year, I might even get brave enough to forego the tights!

More photos of the event can be found on the City Pages website.