Target Has The Bob Ross Board Game You Didn't Know You Needed

Target is selling a new board game based Bob Ross’s legendarily relaxed persona

Painting and competition don’t exactly go hand in hand. Bob Ross and competition definitely don’t jibe. And yet, we’re still totally psyched for the new “Bob Ross: The Art of Chill” board game that Target is selling.

What a happy little accident!

Everybody loves Bob Ross, and now you can pretend to be him. Or beat him. Or both! With this… um… (Exciting? Would we ever call Bob Ross exciting? Aw hell, he wouldn’t mind, he was super chill! Let’s do it.) With this exciting new board game from Target.

Bob Ross: The Art of Chill – as if being chill is something you can somehow learn – is a new game in which you and a few friends attempt to finish a masterpiece before Bob does. Which, if I remember how quickly his blur of colors transformed into a breathtaking landscape on his once-ubiquitous show “The Joy of Painting,” sounds a lot easier than it is.

The back of the box describes the game. Let’s break it down.

“Earn “chill points” by painting landscape features like Happy Little Trees and Almighty Mountains using colors and brushes from your hand of cards.” Haha, chill points. The whole concept of points is totally at odds with being chill, but we dig it.

“Keep your eye on what other players are doing and be strategic about the sequence in which you complete the features. If another player beats you to the brush, you may want to wash your palette and shift your painting plan.”

Now, “being strategic” may seem out of character for someone so laid-back, but let me clue you in on something: our man Bobby was a sergeant in the Air Force. YUP.

According to Wikipedia, being “tough” and “mean” to fellow soldiers convinced the painter that he would never scream again. If you ever watched his show, it’s not hard to believe he kept that vow.

Besides, he had other ways of breaking you.

“All the while, Bob sets the painting pace as he advances across the easel, offering sage encouragement and bonus opportunities for even more chill.” That sounds nice. We could all use a little encouragement these days, and my man B. Ross was the king of it. He was the Mr. Rogers of painting.

I can’t tell if there’s any actual painting involved in this game, or if the potential lack of actual painting makes the game more chill or less chill. As a parent, letting my kids anywhere near paint makes me decidedly less chill, but introducing them to this man’s sublime calmness definitely seems like a good thing.

I’m not entirely sure that making a competition out of being chill is a good idea, but getting Bob Ross back into our lives definitely is.

It’s about to be even better, Bobby, when I kick your ASS at painting!