Rick Mercer

Best known for his satirical on-the-street interviews with real Americans that demonstrate America's general ignorance of Canada. This gimmick reached its height in 2000 when Mercer interviewed then-presidental candidate George W. Bush and got Bush to congratulate newly elected Canadian Prime Minister "Jean Poutine." (The PM's name is actually Jean Chretien, while Poutine is a Canadian dish.)

When I was in grade eight, my school banned the Rubik's Cube. Why? Because some kid was wandering down the hall with his head buried in the Rubik's Cube, went headfirst into a door and split his nose open. The school's rationale was 'Well, we can't have kids walking around with their heads down.' Meanwhile, it was because we wandered around with our heads buried in our Rubik's Cubes that my generation can safely navigate through traffic on foot with our heads down while texting on our Blackberries. You could say it changed our lives.