The Joy of Painting / YMMV

Bob: There are no YMMV articles in painting, just happy perspectives.

Fridge Brilliance: Bob Ross never actually uses the word "art" about his paintings. This might be handy to remember the next time you catch somebody trash-talking his painting skills.
Friendly Fandoms: With those of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, as despite the differing target demographics, both have a soothing and healing tone to them and both feature an All-Loving Hero now practically worshipped as a god. The two are so closely associated that it likely spawned the urban legend of Fred Rogers being a war veteran who wore his famous sweater to cover up his tattoos; Bob Ross was a drill sergeant prior to becoming a painter, and openly spoke about his military service on the show.
Gateway Series: Intended by Ross, as it was his goal to encourage viewers to paint.
Harsher in Hindsight: Ross dedicated the second season premiere to Bill Alexander, his mentor. Several years later, they fell out, with Alexander accusing Ross of "betraying" him in a 1991 interview.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Bob Ross's "no mistakes, only happy accidents" line sounds similar in idea to the "it's not a bug, it's a feature" meme.
- His memetically soothing voice was ASMR decades before the term existed.
- In response to critics who said his work was "kitschy," Ross good-naturedly conceded his paintings would "probably not hang at the Smithsonian." Sure enough, some of Ross's paintings have now been acquired by the Smithsonian American History Museum.
Iconic Character, Forgotten Title: The show is often called simply "Bob Ross".
Memetic Badass:
- Bob Ross once painted a portrait of Chuck Norris. It came to life and beat the original to death.
- Titanium White, one of the paints Bob Ross uses is a memetic badass, due to its awesome sounding name.
  - Makes sense, since Bob's a bright like Titanium White kind of fellow.
  - In order to achieve its white pigment, Titanium White actually contains titanium, one of the most durable metals on Earth (don't get too excited; it's also what they use to dye paper white).
Memetic Mutation:
- Happy little Xs
- Bob Ross is very photoshoppable.
- PBS streamed The Joy of Painting on Twitch. Among other things, the infamously inane Twitch Chat:
  - Called for a VAC ban after particularly impressive strokes.
  - Went "RUINED" when Bob made any changes to the landscape. Similarly, went "SAVED" right at the time when Bob justified his earlier changes through further modifications.
  - Celebrated "COMEBACKS" when Bob worked a "happy accident" to his advantage.
  - Went crazy every time Bob dropped his "happy little (cloud/tree)" catchphrase.
  - Spamming "GG" (Good Game) at the end of the show, and greeting Bob again at the start of the next show with a spam of "GL HF" (Good Luck, Have Fun)
  - Spamming "RIP Devil" every time he beats "the devil" out of his brush and laughs about it being fun or covering the camera crew.
  - If Bob's son Steve or another guest takes over for an episode, the chat will spam "#FREEBOB".
  - Similarly, the chat loves the various animals he brings on the show, and spammed "#FREEPEEP" and "#FREEHOOT" after the bird he named "Peep" and the owl he named "Hoot" were put to the side for the show to continue.
  - Spamming BibleThump (a crying face) and heart emotes when Bob goes dark about certain subjects, such as the bad times in his life.
  - Often times the chat cries like this when Bob talks about meetups he had in Central Park, and telling the viewers to come find him at the meetup next year.
  - Or when presenting an animal they knew was released into the wild and possibly long dead at time of streaming.
  - #KeepBob and #ThankYouBob for when the series was coming to an end.
  - Spamming "1D" every time he says "pull [the brush] in one direction".
  - "MAGIC PogChamp" whenever Bob uses a really simple effect to amazing results, such as using a single brush stroke to make something extremely realistic looking. Similarly, we have "Bob the Wizard \ PogChamp /" used in similar context.
- Asking for Bob to paint a cabin, even when it would clash with the setting of the painting, has become an incredibly popular thing for chat to say. If Bob is doing a sea painting, expect someone to ask for a cabin boat, or something to that effect.
- "bob ross you son of a bitch", taken from a text image circulating, in which the speaker expressed disbelief at a seemingly-out-there color choice (yellow ochre), only for Ross to bring it back and make it work, similar to "SAVED" above.
- "I pulled a sneaky on ya." Said by Steve after pulling out another brush after claiming that the ran out of clean ones
- "Hwite", derived from Ross's pronunciation of the word "white", which he says at least a few times per episode. This was still a common way to pronounce words beginning with "wh" in the 1980s and 1990s (if slightly antiquated even then), but has become rare in the decades since.
- Following along with Bob's techniques in digital art programs, especially primitive ones such as Microsoft Paint, Mario Paint, or Kid Pix. For artists and non-artists alike, it's a fun exercise in figuring out how the hell to replicate Bob's techniques with, say, Paint's default color palette, and also notorious for somehow working and managing to produce nice pictures.
Periphery Demographic: A rare example of a certain audience eclipsing the one that the show was aiming for. According to the documentary The Happy Painter, the audience that tuned in to learn painting techniques made up a mere three percent of the show's viewers. The rest tuned in just because they were enchanted by Bob Ross.
Popularity Polynomial: The series saw a major resurgence in popularity after the smash success of its Twitch marathon in 2015, which prompted a huge Newbie Boom among viewers who weren't even born yet during the show's original run.
Sequel Displacement: There are many, many people who have spent decades watching The Joy of Painting, yet have no idea that it was based entirely on Bill Alexander's The Magic of Oil Painting, an earlier show that aired from 1974 to 1982. Bill Alexander was Bob Ross's instructor in the wet-on-wet method, and Bob's early episodes are nearly indistinguishable from Bill's show in style and technique.^note Bill even first used many of the phrases that have become closely associated with Bob Ross: "Almighty ______" "Happy trees" "You can do it." Bill had given Bob permission to use those techniques, and Joy is considered to be something of a sequel series to Magic once Bill decided he didn't want to be on TV anymore. The strongest contrast between the two series is also the aspect of The Joy of Painting that's most remarked upon: Bob Ross's famously gentle, soft-spoken demeanor, and soothing personality. Alexander's teaching style was more loud and excitable, often shouting instructions at the audience. Sadly, Bill grew unhappy with Bob's growing fame in the 1980s and accused Bob of "betraying" him. Alexander also claimed to have invented wet-on-wet painting, but Dutch painters like Rembrandt were using it in the 17th century.
Spiritual Successor: To The Magic of Oil Painting, another PBS painting instructional show hosted by Bob Ross' mentor, Bill Alexander.
Sweet Dreams Fuel: Bob has such a soft, soothing voice that it's easy to fall asleep watching his show.
Values Dissonance: Sometimes, when mixing blue and black paints, Ross would joke that "black and blue" is how he looks when he's in trouble at home. It's obviously a joke, but greater awareness of domestic abuse means that this kind of casual joke wouldn't fly more than three decades later.

YMMV / The Joy of Painting

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