Originally published at: People turn to Bob Ross painting during the pandemic | Boing Boing
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Yeah, I get it. I too have turned lately to something I probably wouldn’t have before the pandemic:
Puttering along very slowly on English canals with a rather boring host, episode after episode being pretty much the same, is calming. It does a pretty good job many evenings of chasing my anxiety away.
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Well, kinda…
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Bob Ross was ‘soothing on steroids’ long before the pandemic, though.
I loved his voice as a kid and watching him paint was like magic, even if the paintings themselves were a little boring.
Yay for PBS.
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Imagine how surreal it must have been for the former Air Force grunts who had Bob Ross as their drill sergeant to turn on PBS and see such a zenlike calm expressed by the man who once got up in their faces demanding pushups and whatnot.
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I moved to Austria about 14 years ago, I walked into a pharmacy, and a very large part of the store was dedicated to Bob Ross paints and painting stuff, I am sure dvds as well, it was its own room basically.
They loved him there, maybe it was all the mountains.
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I used to say the same about Bill Alexander, with his cute German accent and happy clouds, happy little trees, etc.:
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Have they tried making an NFT of it?
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Not shocked at all
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I was so disappointed they didn’t mention Alexander as the forerunner (not to mention the original TV art teacher, Jon Gnagy). I watched Alexander a lot before Ross came on the scene, and I remember thinking about BR, “Hey, this guy is ripping off Magic White!”
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My manic depressive pill popping alcoholic Mother loved Bob, all though I was given no choice, regardless I love Bob too. He’s up yonder painting our sunrises and sunsets, doing a damn fine job too.
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Me, too! Him, Mr. Wizard and Mr. Rogers (and a certain gentleman who used to host the early AM “Picture Pages” who will go unnamed) were like my TV dads.
I remember a couple times trying to paint along with my cheapo art set and feeling like something major had happened during the commercial break, from which I could never catch up. 
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i grew up on bob ross. i’ve turned to john lurie during the pandemic.
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Does he have a painting show? If he has special celebrity guests, I may watch. Of if he sings while painting.
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i was really hoping it would be a knock-off of the fishing with john format, but it’s different and there are no celebrity guests. but i like it.
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Indeed he does. And he’s attacking Bob Ross! 
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I anxiously await their rap battle.
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I actually watched some Bob Ross this weekend.
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People are just that effing bored!
