The Globe and Mail's Eric Reguly put in an appearance on the Daily Show in a segment by Rob Corddry about "Corn Cob Bob" -- the mascot created by the ethanol lobby that was banned from Parliament Hill on Canada Day.

(Apparently there was some pressure by sponsor Shell Canada.)

"Ethanol is a fraud," declared the hard-hitting business columnist, calling it nothing more than welfare for farmers.

When he talked about the lunacy of turning food into fuel, Corddry observed, "That's what my tummy does!"

Later, after the bit went through the humiliation of Corn Cob Bob being banned from official Canada Day celebrations, Corddry asked Reguly if he'd like to hug Corn Cob Bob to make him feel better, adding, "he's right outside!"

"Oh, for Christ's sake," Reguly sputtered, suddenly looking very uncomfortable. He demurred.

Corddry opens a door and whispers to CCB: "Eric Reguly says go fuck yourself."

CCB just hung his head like a kicked puppy.

(NOTE: This post was made strictly from memory and should not be seen as a transcript of the episode -- although it does cover the gist of the funny stuff from a media perspective. If a link gets posted on the Daily Show site, I'll add it later. Here's an earlier CP story on the bit).

Afterward:

The Toronto Star's Vinay Menon also wrote about the show:

Corddry, a "correspondent," was coming to Toronto to film a segment on the controversy. The piece, titled "Kernel Knowledge," aired Tuesday and started with this deadpan introduction: "Ethanol, the non-Middle Eastern fuel made from corn..."

It quickly degenerated into absurd satire as Corddry probed  (Kory) Teneycke (executive director of the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association) about renewable fuel sources, global warming, Canada Day, and, well, the group's insensitivities toward their own grinning mascot — "You son of a bitch! He's not some circus freak for you to parade around in some carnival!"

But unlike many of the unwitting stooges who get "interviewed," convinced the Daily Show is real, Teneycke was keenly aware of the rules of engagement.

He is, after all, a loyal viewer.

"There's really no downside in going on the show for a group like us," Teneycke told me yesterday. "We felt like what probably made the story interesting for them was not making fun of us as much as the absurdity of the event — Corn Cob Bob being banned."

So Teneycke dutifully assumed a credulous posture.

"(Corddry) comes up with some crazy questions," he says. "He asks silly questions and you answer them like they're serious questions. It's the classic comedy tag-team where there has to be a straight man and a funny man. And the interviewee is the straight man."

By playing along, Teneycke turned the tables on the show and ended up getting some free publicity for the CRFA, a non-profit organization founded in 1994 to promote the use of renewable fuels. (Just before I called, he was on the phone with the Financial Times of London.)

"It's an opportunity to get a message out about ethanol to an audience that never will read the Report on Business or the business section of the Star or the Wall Street Journal," he says.