Georgetown students returning to the Hilltop after Saturday’s men’s basketball victory stepped onto the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Red Line at Gallery Place/Chinatown and faced an unexpected sight: a car filled with pants-less passengers. The group of approximately 100, including a fellow in the Georgetown SFS graduate school and a doctor in his first year residency at the Georgetown University Hospital, met at Dupont Circle at 4 p.m. then separated into two groups based on participants’ birthdays. Half entered the Metro station at the north entrance and half at the south. The two groups then piled onto Red Line trains traveling in opposite directions – one toward Metro Center and the other to the Van Ness/UDC station. They acted as though they were normal riders, when, with a signal from a group organizer, everyone dropped their pants. Dressed below the waist in only underwear and shoes, the mob of riders heading toward Metro Center then traveled to Foggy Bottom, L’Enfant Plaza and Gallery Place, before returning to Dupont Circle, where the cold did not seem to phase the bare-legged bunch. Although the event was the first that the D.C. Metro has ever experienced, it was old news in New York City, which, on the same day, held its “Seventh Annual `No Pants!’ Subway Ride.” This year for the first time, nine other cities joined New York, including Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Toronto and Adelaide, Australia, according to the Web site of Improv Everywhere, the organizing group. Improv Everywhere is a New York-based group of actors, comedians and others who organize large-scale anonymous pranks. The group’s slogan is, quite simply, “We cause scenes,” according to its Web site. “Improv Everywhere has executed over 70 missions involving thousands of undercover agents,” the site said. Recent “missions” have included sending 111 shirtless men to shop at Abercrombie and Fitch on 5th Avenue in New York and 50 redheads to protest Wendy’s “racist” logo, according to the site. Charlie Todd, founder of Improv Everywhere, introduced the idea of a pants-free subway ride on his blog by offering two simple rules: “Participants must be 1) willing to take pants off on subway, and 2) able to keep a straight face about it.” Word spread worldwide through networking sites such as Facebook and e-mail as more and more people expressed interest in starting similar events in their own cities. Josh Brahms, a freshman at Virginia Commonwealth University, said he helped organize the event because “if New York can do it, why can’t we do it?” Although some Georgetown students who encountered the sans-pants riders after the basketball game joined in, at least two graduate program participants were there from the beginning and one even helped organize. A doctor in his residency at the Georgetown University Hospital, who asked that his name not be used, said he heard about the event on Facebook. He received a message from Elizabeth Ody, the group’s organizer, after joining the event asking for organizational help. “I figured `What the hell?’ and showed up early to help organize,” he said. The resident chose to complement his heart boxers with a dress shirt and tie on top. any Georgetown students leaving the basketball game said that they enjoyed the spectacle, but a few said that they thought the stunt was inappropriate. “I think it should be illegal. It’s a little bit too big of a public display for me. Unfortunately, we can’t do anything about it,” Jack Mahoney (MSB ’11) said. Later, in Gallery Place, some Georgetown freshmen decided to join the fun. “I’m thinking about taking my pants off,” George Hoch (MSB ’11) said before deciding to join the event. Joining him were Rocky Ferrandino (COL ’11), Joe McGrath (COL ’11) and Peter McMenamin (COL ’11). They unknowingly dropped their pants near an unsuspecting group of elementary school girls with the Xtreme Acro and Cheer team from Rockville, Md. “I think it should have been left at home,” said the team’s coach, who refused to give her name. “I thought my kids were safe on the Metro, but maybe not.” Despite the negative response from some passers-by, the participants said that they thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Dean Mace, an elderly man who chose to wear exceptionally tight white briefs to the event, said, “Now I’ll be more comfortable riding the Metro because I had a good experience.” “It’s silly,” said Joanne Abbot, one participant. “It’s not about politics, which is wonderfully refreshing in this city.”