Okay, this is a really sad story, but it’s also a story of great stupidity, so I’m going to try to take some of the edge off of this by playing one of our favorite games: FLORIDA OR OHIO? It’s easy to play: you just read about Americans at their finest, and then take a guess as to which state’s woefully backward population provided the drama.

The homeowner, Karen Rhine, told Fox 8 that the blaze on Gayer Drive was accidentally ignited when her 19-year-old son used a lighter to look for a remote control under his bed.

“Up went the mattress and before he could even, he tried to flip over the mattress to get it and put it out”, said Rhine, “and everything just went up.”

Investigators say in the panicked moments after the fire started, members of the family made a fateful decision.

“On the way out, they thought they were going to try to control some of the smoke damage, open up some windows and open up the door and propped it open”, said Chief Bob Painter, “and actually it works in the opposite with the wind, it just turned the whole house into a chimney, feeding the fire with the oxygen and it just continued to grow.” [LA Times]

(The sad part of the story is that the family’s three dogs died in the fire. Guhhhh, that kills me.) Anyway, the correct answer is…

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Ken Ober, the comedian best known as the host of MTV’s “Remote Control” from 1987 to 1991, died this week of unknown causes. He was 52.

Mr. Ober was last heard from on Saturday night, when he spoke to a friend and complained of a headache and flu-like symptoms. Mr. Ober told the friend that he was going to take something and would see a doctor as soon as possible…

That show, which was the network’s first original series to focus on non-musical content, tested participants on their knowledge of television, music-video and pop-culture trivia. The show… drew much of its sarcastic, self-mocking spirit from the culturally obsessive Mr. Ober, who ran the program like a late-night talk show (or frat party) and gleefully teased players who gave wrong answers. [NYT]

As you can see from the clip above, the show was also the first big gig for Adam Sandler and Colin Quinn, and it also featured a young Kari Wuhrer, who was delightfully naked on Cinemax for most of the ’90s. Between the careers it launched and the era it began (the end of music on MTV), that’s a pretty damn influential game show. The only thing “Jeopardy” ever gave us was Ken Jennings and anal bum covers.