Bob Ross is a television artist which I guess makes every bit as much sense as a television chef.
This doesn’t help me know what the comic means, though…
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Comics I Don't Understand 
I think the joke is just that he’s not just a weirdo, he’s really an alien. This is a geezer comic for me, though; I’ve heard of him but never actually saw him in action.
It’s post-modern neo-marxism.
… No. Bob Ross has because a pop-cultural meme for something being compelling because it is campy and weird. At the last Halloween party I went to, *two* people independently came as Bob Ross.
So Bob Ross is a weird thing. ANd weird thing can be explained by aliens. …. I guess.
Bob Ross was an artist on TV, he died in 1995. Two decades after his death, this comic is a rather insensitive cheap shot. It plays on the fact that Ross had (at least on TV) an unflappable, gentle personality (in some ways similar to Fred Rogers).
I used to watch his show. When I was in college, I didn’t have cable available yet, so I tuned into PBS frequently. His show was on Saturday following the cooking shows, It really was something to see him produce an entire painting during the course of the program.
“Happy trees”, Bob.
Kilby, I don’t think I’d call it an “insensitive cheap shot”. Is because he passed away two decades ago that he is off limits to a little ribbing? Because the aforementioned Fred Rogers has certainly had more shots taken at him than Mr. Ross, SNL and SCTV being just a couple, that weren’t exactly flattering.
Sort of comic-related, the animated version of “The Boondocks” featured a Bob Ross character. He encourages Riley to express his art, which happened to be graffiti.
A couple of clips.
Wasn’t he the guy who made all of those silly mouth noises while painting? He was fun to watch. Of course had I tried to paint along with him he would end up with a beautiful landscape with mountains and lakes while I would end up with a stick man like out of XKCD.
Did you know Bob Ross was a drill sergeant?
“Wasn’t he the guy who made all of those silly mouth noises while painting? ”
I’m not sure what you mean here. What sort of noises? He used to talk in a soothing manner.
“Did you know Bob Ross was a drill sergeant?”
I had heard that. It seems he was a 20-year veteran of the Air Force.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Ross#Military_career
>>>“Wasn’t he the guy who made all of those silly mouth noises while painting? ”
>’m not sure what you mean here. What sort of noises? He used to talk in a soothing manner.
Or you could simply answer… No, he was not.
(of course, we feel a slight obligation to know who *was* or to recognize that there was a guy who *did* make silly mouth noises while painting and, I for one, don’t know anyone who did. But then again just because I don’t know who did doesn’t mean there wasn’t a guy.)
I don’t know what “bobpeters61” meant by the comment. The suggested answer might be correct or not, depending.
I recall watching one artist on PBS who would sound-effect his painting techniques such as putting foliage onto trees while going “buda buda buda buda…” or foam on water using a blade to a little swishing sound, among other vocal sounds. He came off as very silly and loving every second of it. A YouTube video or two later I knew he wasn’t the one I was thinking of.
Never saw Bob Ross, but as a kid I watched Jon Gnagy, whose schtick was apparently much the same.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Gnagy
As to the cartoon, it strikes me that the shape of the head of Ross and of the aliens is much the same (minus Ross’ hair), so maybe that’s part of the . . . um, “joke” that he was an alien infiltrater on earth all along? But I’m not very familiar with the strip, so maybe its creator gives all characters heads of that basic shape?
According to Wikipedia (usual caveats) the perm was started as a way to save money by not having to spend money on crew cuts.
Shrug, this geezer remembers Jon Gnagy as well.
bobpeters61. I think you might mean Bill Alexander. Oh, he hated Bob Ross.
I remember Jon Gnagy as well, as does Robert. I had his drawing kit for children. Why I am not an artist – I never did understand changing the circle, cone, etc. that he showed into the actual picture – nor did Robert.