You don't like happy little trees and rocks? (That's Bob Ross, right? Paints pictures of happy little trees and rocks?)
That's the guy. Seems nice enough, but I can't tell the difference between his art and the paint-by-numbers things we filled in as kids. Hard to get excited about an artist (or a writer, for that matter) whose work isn't much better than what I can do myself. 'Course, I feel the same way about that guy who draws big comic book panels that sell for zillions of dollars (Roy Lichtenstein).
coincidentally this just popped up in mt pocket recommendations on firefox https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2021/08/bob-ross-documentary-netflix?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB
Bob Ross's appeal was his afro and "happy" shtick. And the ubiquity of PBS in the 70s-80s. Everyone knew who he was. Everyone who heard "happy cloud" knew exactly who and what it referred to.
I'm on the older end of Millenial, and I feel like I had two distinct phases of Bob Ross awareness: since I was a kid I knew who he was mostly through my mother, who was a fan of his show, but he wasn't terribly present in most of the culture I and my peers consumed. But then later on he gained a sort of second life by getting made into memes once social media got big.
He's a nice guy already on TV. As long as that image didn't change, he stays popular. But most of the time the people on TV are not as nice as they appear on TV. E.g. Ellen Degeneratesomething. So he was popular because he was a nice guy and people like rooting for nice guys. But they'd happily tear down anyone who are not as nice as their public image would imply.
This, and @Xoic's post right before it raises a good question: When are they going to do a documentary on that 'Mr. Body' guy (Slim Goodbody)?
Bob Ross was actually a Marine IIRC. Maybe a drill instructor? So what you're seeing on his show is a very different personality from the one he was using for that job. My bad, he was an Air Force Master Sergeant and Drill Instructor.
After a week straight of working late into the nights, playing on my phone as I reprocess data from yet another calculation change, I am doing absolutely nothing useful right now. And enjoying it.
"Hard" opposite to "soft" drinks. Doesn't need a ton of alcohol in it, just enough to make it illegal to serve to kids.
My confession is that I just looked at Earp's post and thought they found themselves in a jail cell with a fancy glass window.
The day after me and my friends had walked up Kebnekaise (Sweden's tallest mountain) we sat up late in a lodge, late enough that it got a bit dark. As we left the lodge, we realised we had forgotten our lamps. Was a fun walk to try and find the tent in the dark, half sober.