No Trousers Tube Ride aims to give Londoners a smile in the bleak midwinter

globalnews.ca:

Mind the pants.

Hundreds of Londoners headed down to the Underground on Sunday afternoon, stripped down to their underwear and travelled around a bit, trying to look as though nothing unusual was going on.

As if.

This was the Official No Trousers Tube Ride, an annual event with no point other than injecting a little levity into the bleak midwinter. No deep meaning, no bigger motive. The only goal was to be silly, if but for one afternoon.

“There’s so much bad, so much not fun going on,’’ said ringleader Dave Selkirk, a 40-year-old personal trainer. “It’s nice to do something just for the sake of it.”

After gathering at the entrance to Chinatown, dozens of clothing anarchists trooped through the icy streets to the Piccadilly Circus Underground station in central London where they boarded their first train. The only hiccup was that the cars were so crowded some people couldn’t shed their trousers.

Selfies were taken. Grins were exchanged. Tourists looked puzzled.

The first stunt in this vein was held in New York in 2002, the brainchild of local comedian Charlie Todd. His idea was this: Wouldn’t it be funny if someone walked onto a subway train in the middle of winter wearing hat, gloves, scarf — everything but pants? Or trousers as they’re known in London, pants being synonymous with underpants in Britain.

“It would be unusual in New York, although you can see anything on our subway system, but what would really be funny is if at the next stop, a couple of minutes later, when the doors open and additional persons got on, not wearing trousers as well,” Todd told the BBC. “And they act like they don’t know each other, and they act like … it’s no big deal and they just forgot their trousers.’’

The idea took off, and no pants