No trousers? No problem: London underground users bare their legs

Hundreds of Londoners headed down to the Underground on Sunday afternoon, stripped down to their underwear. As you do.

This tradition is not new. Yesterday 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 is whimsy, if only 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.”

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

Check out some of the pics from yesterday’s event:

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 trousers?

Or pants, as they call them Stateside.

“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 days have been held all over: in Berlin, Prague, Jerusalem, Warsaw and Washington, D.C., among other cities.

London hosted its first big reveal in 2009.