Ken Ober was a unique talent. As the host of the MTV game show "Remote Control" (which ran on the network from 1987 until 1990), he was given the task of not only driving the show (reading questions, announcing prizes, keeping up the pace) but also providing laughs, pausing for skits and interacting with his wacky team of sidekicks, which included future stars Adam Sandler, Dennis Leary and Colin Quinn. The veteran stand-up comic and television producer passed away over the weekend at age 52.
Quinn weighed in on Ober's passing yesterday, but the top MTV News archivists resurrected an interview with him from 1999 (which was taped for an episode of "Uncensored" that contained a behind-the-scenes look at "Remote Control"). Ober and Quinn began on the stand-up circuit in New York in the '80s, so they were old friends who managed to elevate themselves to the strange cable creation that was "Remote Control." "We knew each other from comedy clubs," Quinn explained. "When we first started, all we cared about was what 20 comedians thought. We hoped they wouldn't see the show, because even then the 'Brady Bunch' jokes were hack. But all the comedians thought it was funny."
The former "Saturday Night Live" cast member and host of "Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn" had nothing but praise for Ober, even going so far as identifying himself as an "acolyte" of his. "Kenny was hilarious. He was just very spontaneous," Quinn said. "And he had a hard thing: Being funny and still reading all those damn questions for 45 minutes."
You know it's happened to you: You download a new Eminem freestyle or a Lil Wayne remix, but then when you click "Play" all you get is a terrible mixtape DJ shouting over the track about how dope it actually is. Comedian and actor Aziz Ansari (star of "Funny People" and TV's "Parks and Recreation") is fed up with them too, which is why he took the Jay-Z and Kanye West track "Hate" and talked all over it as a way to send-up those guys who are always shouting "Exclusive!" West liked it so much that he posted the song to his own blog.
"New Jay-Z track, y'all. I'm about to yell all over the s---," Ansari says at the beginning of the song. "Totally ruin it." As the song continues, Jigga and West's verses are kept low in the mix so that Ansari can talk about "Mad Men," how he hates doing laundry, why he doesn't like watching TV shows that aren't in HD and what's on the delicious turkey sub he has in the fridge. "This sandwich is dope! Blueprint 3! Turkey sub!" He even brings up Jay-Z's attendance at Sunday's Grizzly Bear concert in New York. "That s--- was crazy!" says Ansari.
"Hate" is produced by Kanye West and appears on The Blueprint 3. The unmolested track made its way to the Internet on Monday, and Ansari added his own spice shortly thereafter. Here's hoping for the Anzari/Kanye team-up — perhaps in a future episode of "Parks and Recreation" or on a skit on the next West record.
In just over two weeks, one of the two men vying for our nation's highest office will be out of a job. One will get ready to move into the White House, and one will head home — or to one of his seven homes. Sure, the loser will still have a gig in the Senate, but with this year’s presidential campaign winding down, could either John McCain or Barack Obama — who hoisted verbal attacks at each other during the third and final debate Wednesday night — secure future work on the stand-up circuit? Last night, both candidates attended the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation dinner at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, where they swapped punch lines about themselves and each other.
(Watch the video after the jump!)
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