How about...
Getting flung by a catapult but falling short, then getting swallowed whole by a whale which is harpooned by a Japanese whaling vessel, which is subsequently blown up by green activists, with the remains being shipped as a prize trophy to London, although on the way it is stollen by a Martian. humanity mistakes the stealing of the remains as a declaration of war rather then an experiment, and the remains lie on the Cliffs of Dover where they fell out of the shot-down spaceship for the rest of the following war of the worlds. Eventually, the British, one of the few nations who survived the war by complaining about the weather so much that the aliens got exasperated and went home, send it to France by air because they have a spair jet and they can't stand the smell any more?