Why does the elephant have a ring throuh its nose?

As everyone knows, The Simpsons have a small elephant's head attached to their front door. It's been there throughout the entire 50 year run of The Simpsons, and no one has ever questioned it, it just is.

But one thing has always puzzled me: why does the elephant have a ring through its nose?

The elephant head (with its ring) can be seen in these screencaps from the episode "Mom and Pop Art":

http://captaininfinity.us/images/simpsons-elephant-1.jpg http://captaininfinity.us/images/simpsons-elephant-2.jpg http://captaininfinity.us/images/simpsons-elephant-3.jpg

Has Matt Groaning ever said in a interview why he designed the elephant head this way?

** Captain Infinity

[email] wrote:

Are you talking about the door knocker?

Is it not a door knocker?

It's a door knocker. You tap the door with the ring.

  ..

On Apr 14, 9:32 am, Captain Infinity wrote:

On Fri, 13 Apr 2012 19:32:39 -0400, Captain Infinity wrote:

When did that happen? How did I miss it?

Once Upon A Time, Bob O'Dyne wrote:

1962 to present.

Was your family poor? TV's were still pretty expensive in 1962, maybe your family didn't have one yet.

** Captain Infinity

On Fri, 13 Apr 2012 19:32:39 -0400, Captain Infinity wrote:

So people don't bruise their knuckles?

On Sat, 14 Apr 2012, Mason Barge wrote:

All I keep thinking about is Dr. Frankenstein saying something about the size of those knockers.

Michael

Makes it that much easier for the Kochs to lead it around.

Why does everyone think it's an elephant? It doesn't look like an elephant to me. Where are the ears? I think it looks like an eerie, evil-looking bird head...

Elephant = proud wild animal, king of all it surveys Donkey = domesticated laborer of questionable intelligence and morals; gets used to standing in its own filth

Once Upon A Time, R Flowers wrote:

Ridiculous. If it was a bird it would have a worm in its mouth. It's clearly an elephant. Now, why is there a ring in its nose? I've never seen an elephant with a ring in its nose, but you can see lots of birds with worms in their mouths.

** Captain Infinity ..."You couldn't deny that, even if you tried with both hands." --the Red Queen, _Through The Looking Glass_

On Sat, 14 Apr 2012, Captain Infinity wrote:

It's an Indian elephant, nose piercing seems pretty common in India.

Michael

Once Upon A Time, Michael Black wrote:

Hmmm, well, that's the most reasonable answer so far, even though the Simpsons are not from Indiana. Maybe it was a gift from Apu when they moved to town.

** Captain Infinity

Captain Infinity wrote in news:[email]:

You're an idiot. Does that answer your question?

On Sat, 14 Apr 2012, Captain Infinity wrote:

If it was an African elephant, it wouldn't have had a ring in its nose.

Michael

And it would have very obvious ears.