Got to admit, this was a new one on me.

But apparently this whole Katy Perry/corn dog fiasco has added some renewed vigor to the Ole Miss-LSU rivalry, oddly enough in a year when it finally didn’t really need any outside agitators.

I happened to be in the Auburn, press box awaiting that LSU debacle when the whole controversy broke. Some of the younger writers who cover LSU were scrambling around in a proper tizzy, hot on the Twitter trail to get to the bottom of the Katy Perry dissing of LSU while she was making a guest appearance on ESPN’s “GameDay” over in Oxford the morning before the Ole Miss-Alabama game.

I guess I looked sufficiently puzzled, but one of the young scribes was kind of enough to explain.

“It’s the whole corn dog thing again,” he said. “But this time Katy Perry is involved.”

“Oh, thaaaat,” I said. “Who? … What?”

“You don’t know about the corn dogs?”

Actually, Katy Perry was a new one on me too, but perhaps I don’t get out enough and I only read “People” magazine flippantly at the barbershop.

But apparently she’s famous enough that when she taunts LSU fans with corn dogs while guest-picking on “GameDay,” it crosses over two or three social barriers and is no longer just a sports story.

Who?

Turns out she’s a pop singer of some renown, perhaps even talented. Her formal ties to Ole Miss are somewhat tenuous, although apparently her agent did some time there and, more importantly, knows a good, free publicity stunt when he sees one. Even if his California-born-and-bred client must come up with a faux Suuthin’ accent for the occasion.

But corn dogs?

Well, I did some due diligence and soon learned that Katy Perry is no stranger to the culinary arts.

Just this week, according to numerous reports, we learned that Katy Perry is heart broken — actual quote: “devastated to realize” — that the Betty Crocker Corporation has discontinued the production of its Rainbow Chip cake frosting.

Via her Twitter account, came her painful plea for help: “What da heck am I supposed to 2 put on my Funfetti cake? How can I turn 30 now.”

Well, Ms. Perry, you’ll learn it’s no bargain getting old. You just have to deal with it.

You’ll learn not to sweat the small stuff, turn it into a life’s lesson, move on and … what in tarnation is Funfetti cake?

Anyway, I would suggest Cool Whip.

But evidently Perry is a big enough of a star (diva) that a reputable outfit like ABC News felt obliged to seek out an official comment from Betty Crocker, demanding an explanation as to why the company would destroy the poor girl’s 30th birthday party.

Not only that, but Betty Crocker was startled enough to provide an actual “official spokesman” to comment on the matter. He officially responded that the corporation was “exploring bringing Rainbow Chip back,” although he added the cautionary disclaimer that the company was “working through some challenges.”

Challenges?

Gosh, covering sports was so much simpler when all you had to worry about was third-and-2 and autographs for who?

It’s cake icing. How challenging can that be? Lots of sugar and some other stuff, possibly chips. You either make it or you don’t.

Case solved.

If I was an Ole Miss fan — and in a misspent youth I did indeed cheer on Archie Manning — I’d be more concerned about Ms. Perry’s attire, not her appetite.

For her appearance in the coveted Guest Picker role on ESPN, she chose a fluffy, prickly, pinkish jersey of some sort, apparently made entirely from farm-raised pink feather boas.

Have you ever been to Ole Miss? To The Grove, where the candelabra tailgating convenes?

I have, many times.

There are strict fashion rules in effect there, the likes of which you won’t find on any other campus. And even to the most casual of Grove disciples, I’m sure her flitty outfit had to be considered “downright tacky,” at best, “borderline scandalous” at worst.

Even if it had been before Labor Day, which it wasn’t.

But, by all accounts, Ms. Perry has become an honorary Rebel and cult figure for having the courage to stand up on national television and wave a common corn dog at the cameras as a blatant taunt directed at LSU fans.

She also picked Auburn to beat LSU that day, which didn’t exactly make her a radical. The corn dog was key.

The Rebels, to coin a phrase, ate it up.

Again, I was confused.

I may not know Katy Perry from William “The Refrigerator” Perry, but I know Ole Miss-LSU.

I grew up with it. I have covered it my entire adult life.

I had never heard mention of a corn dog before, nor any idea why it was a taunt, or even offensive.

Best I’ve been told, Ole Miss fans call LSU the “Corn dogs” in a derogatory and hopefully offensive manner to suggest that Tiger fans smell like corn dogs, probably in a carny sort of way.

So Ole Miss finally gets unbeaten and presentable in football and all of sudden it’s OK to taunt?

Not exactly. As I understand it now, this has been going on for years and years.

How did I miss this?

The corn dog fun with LSU has even spread to some other SEC schools but, according to sources speaking on deep background, it definitely originated with Ole Miss.

And LSU doesn’t like it, not one bit. Really, I had no idea.

So ESPN’s Chris Fowler, a “GameDay” host and eye witness to Perry’s corn dog slur, chimed in this week that he’s been to LSU a million times and “never seen a corn dog.”

Me, either.

But now, with “GameDay” going to LSU Saturday, presumably the guest picker will have some Tiger ties, and the pressure is on for the rebuttal.

The Rainbow Chips just doesn’t have the same ring.

l

Scooter Hobbs covers LSU

athletics. Email him at

shobbs@americanpress.com(Associated Press)