Twitter Confirms Ken Ober Passing

Another nasty little rumor circulated the Internet this morning. Movieline is reporting that comedian and actor Paul F. Thompkins tweeted a confirmation. It was unknown the circumstances surrounding the creation of said rumor, but it's in fact true. Sadly, Ken Ober, the host of the cult game show Remote Control, has indeed passed at age 52.

The only show I loved more than MTV's Remote Control growing up was Double Dare on Nickelodeon. I always thought that once I conquered DD and won a nifty bubblegum pink clarinet, I'd take the stage on Remote Control and eat every single Dorito they dumped on my head just before the lightning round.

The premise of the show was from Ober, who wrote and produced the show shot in his "mother's basement." Really, it was a studio in Harlem. Three contestants sat in La-Z-Boys and would select a channel, each of which represented some topic having to do with pop culture. Some of the popular channels included, "The Bon Jovi Network," "Brady Physics" and "Dead or Canadian." Contestants answered a series of questions from those subjects to earn points.

One of the most memorable episodes was when they had a celebrity challenge. LL Cool J, at the time, was like Jay-Z; Julie Brown, who was oft confused with Downtown Julie Brown, who hosted Club MTV (man, I'm getting NOSTALGIC!); and "Weird Al" Yankovic competed, donating their winnings to charity.

Check it out:

If you're between the ages of 25 and 40, you probably remember this show — and if you do, you remember Ober. Besides being one of the reasons we yearn for the MTV of the past, he was one of the last few people that gave us memories to last for a lifetime.