Large, Donut-Wielding Simpson Angers Pagans

July 31, 2007 — -- No one is exactly sure who the famous Giant of Cerne Abbas is. The origins of this giant club-wielding naked figure carved into the chalk hillside of Dorset, England, are unknown.

But there's no mistaking his new neighbor: A grinning fat man wearing underpants and wielding a donut. Homer has been painted onto the damp Dorset incline next to the Giant to promote the new Simpsons movie. And not everyone is happy with this incongruous pair.

"Well, I don't like it meeself," said one sour-looking tourist. "We've got the historic value of the man, the Giant, and yet this looks more like a comedy feature. And I just don't think it's appropriate to have both of them next to each other."

English pagans are also upset. There are reports that some have been doing rain dances, enticing a deluge to wash the fat man away. Homer's figure is biodegradable white paint that is supposed to be able to wash away.

The rain dances appear to have worked. Last week England suffered its worst floods in 60 years -- but Homer is still there.

"They had said when they were doing it that the paint would be gone in a couple of days," said Rob Rhodes of the National Trust, which owns the Giant. "So, it's not great. But, you know, it's a piece of fun."

Homer was created by Peter Stewart, who normally paints advertising logos on sports fields. "We made sure it was going to be there for a while," he told me with a smile. "The underpants were challenging, because there's a dip in the hill exactly where the crotch area is."

Local farmer Henry Digby owns the hillside on which Homer is painted. Apparently, this isn't the first time he's been approached by would-be advertisers keen to cash in on the Giant's iconic status.

"A number of ideas came up about Viagra and everything else, which I felt were pretty inappropriate," Digby said. "But when the idea of having Homer up here came, it just struck me that it would be fun as well as a commercial thing."