The Queen Slapped Her Face All Over Stonehenge

The tribute organized by English Heritage saw eight portraits of the queen from each decade of her reign (and the next one) projected onto the ancient stone pillars of the monument, featuring everything from a 1953 coronation to a shot of her walking one of her famous corgis. “We wanted to show different aspects of the Queen’s personality, of her interests, and really show what a special lady she is,” English Heritage explained to Sky News. In addition to the prehistoric stone structure, the Marble Arch in London was also adorned six extra portraits.

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Naturally, people felt some sort of way about using the world heritage site to celebrate the figurehead of the British monarchy. “As someone who lives near Stonehenge, I find this co-opting of a heritage site for political propaganda disgraceful and embarrassing," griped podcaster, Jack Graham, on Twitter. Others pointed to the fact that Stonehenge predates the monarchy by a few thousand years rendering any connection between the two superficial at best, but on the bright side at least the projections didn't leave any lasting mark on the monument.

Criticism of the tribute aside, the overwhelming reaction to the Queen's visage being plastered across the ancient (potentially pagan) stones was to make some variation of the "an old, objectively useless thing that nobody actually understands the point of," Stonehenge joke ad nauseam. “Something ancient and now pointless that we keep under the guise of tourism, projected onto stonehenge,” comedian Alexandra Haddow wrote on Twitter.

Ironically, the Queens of the Stone Age jokes were few and far between.

Photo via Getty/ Matt Cardy