Bob Ross aka Rob Boss aka The Paint Bomber aka Titanium White, the man whose voice could be President, is having a bit of a renaissance right now.
On October 29, Twitch.tv began streaming nine straight days of Ross’ spellbinding motivational speaker series/instructional art show, The Joy of Painting. That’s 403 episodes of uninterrupted happy little accidents and truth bombs like “There’s nothing wrong with having a tree as a friend.”
And the whole world, seemingly, tuned in.
More than 5.6 million people streamed the show (twice as many viewers as season 3 of House of Cards), some of whom Twitter-painted along with the incredible Afro Picasso, and Bob Ross became a unanimous choice for last-minute Halloween costume.
Indeed, a more fantastic start to November it could not have been.
When the stream ended last Friday, fans from around the world felt a very fatal blue. It was as if someone had ripped all doers and indicators from our soul; Bob Ross and Chill was no more, and this just before the weekend.
Well, great news: Bob Ross is coming back. Twitch announced yesterday that it would stream a full season of The Joy of Painting every Monday starting at 6 p.m. E.T. Given that there are 31 seasons (!), it will take seven months before repeats start to air. The nine-day Joy of Painting marathon, meanwhile, will become an annual program that commences on Ross’ birthday, October 29.
“I am so used to the internet sucking the joy out of everything and reducing it to dick jokes and racial slurs,” said one fan about the announcement. “To have something like this resurface and become popular is just a warm, fuzzy place.”
And just like that, the internet is a happy cloud once more.
[ad_bb1]