By CHRIS GRAEME [email protected]
Temperatures might have plunged close to freezing in Lisbon on Saturday but passengers riding the metro might have been forgiven for thinking it was flaming June.
Eyebrows were raised with mouths agape while more than a few glanced over their newspapers and pointed in surprise on seeing several commuters riding without their trousers.
But it was yet another madcap action by Flash Mob where people are invited via Internet or SMS to carry out a silly activity in public to raise a laugh.
The Algarve Resident also received the message and went along to the action’s meeting point in the garden by Telheiras Metro Station where around 30 people, mostly young college and university students, were briefed by the group’s coordinator, known only as Agent Somos.
Addressing the crowd through a child’s toy megaphone, he explained the rules: in groups of four, participants were to enter the metro carriages and take off their trousers leaving only their shoes and underwear.
They were to ignore other passengers and press, carry on as if nothing was out of the ordinary. If asked why they were trouserless, they could politely respond “because I felt like it”, or “because I’m feeling hot,” or even “God, I completely forgot to put them on!” or any other banal yet improbable excuse.
“The idea, which was always one of improvisation, was to bring a little bit of cheer, get people laughing in a world that’s already way too serious as it is,” said Agent Somos.
The event was started by comedian Charlie Todd and a few close friends on the New York Metro in 2002.
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