The Fan Theories community on Reddit “is a place for fans of various creative works to share theories, interpretations and speculation related to that particular creative work.” At Upvoted, we put some of these hypotheses under the microscope to see if they can go from Fan Theory to Fan Fact.

The Fan Theory

Bob Ross is having a renaissance of sorts, some 20 years after he died. The painter’s resurgence comes thanks to episodes of his instructional The Joy of Painting PBS series appearing on YouTube and Twitch.

Those half-hour shows—Ross’ serene voice and upbeat demeanor teaching viewers how to render “happy little trees” in oil paint—ran from 1984 until 1994 and chronicle man who enjoyed sharing his passion for art with others. (Ross died from lymphoma in 1995.)

But what if there was a darker side to the series? What if Ross’ positivity and peaceful paintings hid a disturbing reality? What if Bob Ross was the artisan equivalent to Mad Max, wandering out into the wasteland, reduced to a single instinct: Paint?

That’s the basis of the fan theory by Reddit user greggawatt, who speculates that Ross creates his canvases from a post-apocalyptic world where he is the last living human. It’s a claim that made at least one user happy.

The Evidence

What’s the reasoning behind greggawatt’s end of the world hypothesis? It has to do with the pastoral subject matter of Ross’ work:

“Bob Ross paintings always feature nature scenes, and he mentions Animals but rarely mentions humans. His paintings do feature man-made structures, but never with individuals in them, they are long abandoned. There are two examples of humans in his paintings, but we can consider those are scenes featuring the last few humans left on earth. Also cabins in his scenes lack chimneys, suggesting the chimneys fell down some time ago.”

Gregawatt cites a statistical analysis of Ross’ paintings during his shows by the website FiveThirtyEight that backs up his contention. The study showed Ross sure loved his happy trees, happy clouds, happy mountains, and happy lakes.

Annette Kowalski, founder of Bob Ross Inc., also revealed this fact in the FiveThirtyEight breakdown:

“I can think of two times he painted people. There was a man by a campfire, and two people walking through the woods.”

Fan Theory or Fan Fact?

Fan fact. The idea of Bob Ross painting endless landscapes as his way to cope in a world where the human race has been wiped out is too good not to be true. Plus, there’s visual proof thanks to user KiroBird and Fallout 4.

Well, maybe that’s not so much proof as it is wish fulfillment.

Consider the Internet broke.