Best Bottoms: No Pants Day 2017
In Malaysia, every day is No Pants Day because of our freaking weather. The only time we slap on jeans or slacks is when we go to work at a formal environment, because our colonial predecessors were never comfortable with our tropical, sun-deflecting thighs.
So it is with great amusement that we bring you this compilation of the best photos from last Sunday’s No Pants Day 2017. The event, organised by the Improv Everywhere comedy collective, started in 2002 in New York with just seven participants. “We want to give New Yorkers a reason to look up from their papers, from their phones, and experience something that’s a little different than their average run-of-the-mill stuff,” said Jesse Good, one of the event’s organisers.
Each year, up to 9,000 to 10,000 people take part in the global good-willed stunt, whereby participants get onto the subway at different stops and don’t acknowledge that they are wearing their warm winter clothes with no pants on, much to the amusement and confusion of fellow train-passengers.
Pants-less subway rides took place last Sunday in 60 cities, in 25 countries around the world, including London, Boston, Berlin, Prague, and Warsaw. Philadelphia’s version was sponsored by a laundry delivery service Got Laundry? which asked participants to show up with extra pants or other clothing to donate to charity.
In England, the annual event took place 3 hours before a 24-hour tube staff walkout began at 6pm – a strike by London Underground workers against staff cuts and ticket office closures – which is set to leave thousands of people stranded during Monday morning rush hour.
Organiser of the London event, Ivan Markovic said, “We have been running it for eight years here. We travel the Tube on the first Sunday of the year and just make a scene. We make people smile. We make people laugh and we get some lovely reactions.” The organisers urged participants not to wear anything “overly close fitting” so nobody is upset. They added, “Our aim is to make people laugh, not piss them off.”
Did you celebrate No Pants Day here in Malaysia? Send us a picture of yourself to [email protected] if you did and you might just walk away with fresh (disposable) undies from Daiso! No shit! More pics (and a video too!) below…