Watching the ABC television series, "I Survived a Japanese Game Show" gives me a certain sense of the familiar. I have never been to Japan, nor have I ever been a contestant on a game show. But I bore witness to that country's perverse sense of humor nearly ten years ago when the ocean waters off Key Biscayne became a set for the grand finale of a very bizarre quiz show.
In "Trans America Ultra Quiz", Japanese contestants had to survive multiple rounds of traveling the U.S. and answering questions for a chance at a grand prize. This grand prize was supposed to be a beautifully-decorated houseboat in South Florida. After the final elimination round, the ecstatic winner sat in a studio watching the unveiling of his/her new home. Then suddenly, it blew up.
Ha ha ha.
And that's what happened, sort of. An unnamed barge, tricked out with cheesecloth and paint to look posh on the outside, was towed out to 70 feet of water off Key Biscayne. A Homestead pyrotechnics company rigged some charges to make it look like it exploded. But really it sank because of four holes drilled below the waterline. It's now an artificial reef.
No word on what happened to the poor sap who "won" it. He probably would have preferred to dress up in a bug suit and get stuck to a Velcro wall.
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