Over 20 years after his series ended, Bob Ross can still inspire anyone to paint -- even the raucous audiences on Twitch.
Since the gaming streaming network began airing a marathon including all 403 episodes of The Joy of Painting on Thursday, the streaming community has become quite taken with Ross.
61k people still watching Bob Ross. The internet is a weird thing.— Anthony Gallegos (@Chufmoney) October 30, 2015
the thought that possibly hundreds of thousands of new people might be exposed to bob ross over the next couple of weeks is magical to me.— cats in a human suit (@aegies) October 30, 2015
The Joy of Painting ended in 1994, a year before Bob Ross died from lymphoma -- so it's possible many younger gamers never caught his show in reruns.
And while Twitch made its own custom emoji for Ross -- a mixture of his recognizable hair and the site's iconic Kappa -- the community also embraced the show in several other ways.
All the comments going "gg" whenever Bob Ross finishes a painting. :') https://t.co/7mYrsjwHG2 pic.twitter.com/ZHZZhkYJQ9— Eline Muijres (@ElineMuijres) October 30, 2015
Half the fun of this stream is when Bob Ross paints something unexpected and ppl FREAK OUT https://t.co/LI7TNghNXr pic.twitter.com/8apBVQ0Zb1— Laura Hudson (@laura_hudson) October 30, 2015
I have been watching Twitch chat for Bob Ross for several hours, and it's changing the way I think about Twitch viewers for the better.— Fredelantern (@BrandywineFred) October 30, 2015
This Kotaku gif captures the speed the chat was moving at.
37,000 people are watching Bob Ross paint on Twitch right now: https://t.co/ZUqM9gKPst pic.twitter.com/O6JX0AjfCa— Kotaku (@Kotaku) October 29, 2015