Historicist: "The city that nobody loves"
Elsewhere in the Ist-a-Verse
Urban pranksters Improv in Toronto were out in force this past Saturday, once again bringing their whimsical brand of public tomfoolery to the city's subway system—this time with pants securely on. After meeting up above ground in Queen's Park, the group piled on to a train on the Yonge-University line and—seemingly spontaneously—started to dance to whatever music was pumping through their headphones. According to organizers, Saturday's groove-fest was "at least 20 times bigger" than last year's sparsely attended inaugural edition, drawing around 450 participants.
How did commuters not in on the joke react when their subway car turned into a chaste, sober, and fast-moving dance club? The above video pretty much says it all.
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This is dorky. They've done much better stunts than this.
I witnessed a variety of reactions myself. Suits looking disgusted with the level of non-conformity, elderly men expressing great amusement, Japanese tourists with looks of great intrigue...
Overall a great experience, can't wait to see what they think of next!
It was HILARIOUS. So much fun, we got a lot of random bystanders to join in with us.
I think it's too bad that people have added music to all the videos that have been posted online, mostly on Facebook. Adding music makes it hard to truly see how funny this must've looked to bystanders who couldn't hear the music we were all dancing to.
Yawn.
@davedave
In what way is this... "dorky"? Everyone who went loved it and had a lot of fun, random people on the train joined in on the fun, and the reactions from all the commuters were priceless.
The dance parties are definitely one of my favourite, if not my favourite missions so far.
@marygrace_g
The music ads to the video, depending on the music choice. Ely (guy who did the video) chose a great song to use, and it I find it really adds to the video, without the music it gets boring very quickly.
It's dorky because it's a desperate plea for attention. You say it's an expression of fun and individuality but it's really just an opportunity for you to mock everyone's elses reaction. This is the hipster version of streaking a sporting event.
Regardless of whether this is a plea for attention or not. It definitly dosn't havn't anything to do with mocking people. In the end it makes their day, and puts a smile on peoples faces. Give us some slack.
Also, I don't believe that we ever called it an "expression of fun and individuality". Thats never our goal. I mean, one of our missions Repeat Customer, had everyone go into a store, dressed almost identical, and put in identical orders.
Our goal in this mission, is to brighten up the day of those on the subway. Make it interesting, something out of the ordinary. Thats exactly what happened, the many smiles, and people joining in are evidence that we accomplished what we set out to do.
I'll tell you why is dorky: you're imposing your own idea of "fun" on people who, like me, have had enough genuine real-life wackiness on the TTC in their lifetime.
Not to mention I've been reading about spontaneous dance parties, "urban interventions" and flash mobs for what feels like 10 years now. It's wearying and unoriginal.
The earlier comment about "suits looking disgusted with the level of non-conformity" pretty much is a perfect self-parody of the kind of people that think this is cool. Are you expecting the rest of the population to get up and dance with you? You're annoying.