Meghan Hein tried hard to keep a straight face as she dropped her pants on the subway platform before her ride on the silver bullet.

Sporting thigh-high stockings and a debonair smile, the 19-year-old ignored the dropped jaws and wide-eyed stares as she boarded a Bloor line train yesterday.

Hein was among some 75 semi-naked people who boarded the train together as part of a multi-city exercise by Improv Everywhere – an online collective dedicated to causing public chaos and joy.

Some of the Toronto pranksters chose form-fitting polka dot briefs, others plaid boxers – thongs were discouraged – as they slipped, deadpan, among startled riders.

"Where are their pants?" asked a middle-aged rider, Anab Ali, who seemed slightly disturbed by all the half-naked men and women planting their bottoms on seats around her.

Two other riders – Lindsay Olson and Mandy Leinbach, both 15 – took good looks at the bared flesh and traded comments as they gripped a pole to keep their balance.

"What is wrong with this civilization?" asked a mystified Olson while one prankster, Jeremy Dziewir, 19, did chin-ups in his briefs at the risk of revealing too much.

Eliciting wondering looks, smirks and disgust from people mostly too timid to ask questions, the pranksters rode the subway for an hour from Dundas West to Donlands and back.

Suzana Barbosa, a 28-year-old singer, organized the outing here to coincide with similar disrobings yesterday on public transit in New York, Chicago and six other U.S. cities as well as Adelaide in Australia.

She said it was meant to be liberating for those taking part and amusing for everyone else.

Randy, 23, who was willing to reveal his legs but not his name, saw it as a psychological experiment.

"This was important to my personal growth. Doing things like this that you wouldn't normally gives you confidence," he said.

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"We're always worried about not looking bad. If I can walk onto a subway without pants and feel confident, then I break any barrier."