Twitch is streaming Bob Ross's The Joy of Painting for 8 ½ days straight

Who needs art school when you can just hole up in your room for 200 hours straight and watch Bob Ross paint happy trees?

Thanks to Twitch, you can actually do that right now.

The Amazon-owned live streaming video platform launched an 8.5-day-long The Joy of Painting marathon Thursday afternoon to celebrate its new "creative" category, which will focus on artists, crafters and builders who broadcast their work through Twitch.

"We'll broadcast every episode of the original Bob Ross show, The Joy of Painting, in an epic marathon starting today at 2 p.m. PST," reads a blog entry posted to Twitch's website this week. "That's 403 episodes of Bob Ross that will play over the course of 8.5 days."

On a channel dedicated to the Bob Ross marathon, Twitch further explained that Oct. 29 is the iconic PBS host's birthday.

"Celebrate the birthday of the legend himself; put on your creativity fro and create some happy trees alongside Bob Ross for 9 days of oil painting!"

More than 800,000 people had viewed the stream within just 24 hours of its launch.

At press time, almost 60,000 people were simultaneously watching the channel, many of whom could be seen sharing their thoughts (and Bob Ross head emoji-type kappas) in the stream's fast-moving chat box.

While many of Twitch's live streams pull big numbers, particularly on gaming-related channels, the Bob Ross marathon is picking up a significant amount of attention elsewhere online right now. The attention is likely because of the American painter's status cult popularity.

The Joy of Painting aired on PBS in the United States, Canada, and Europe for more than a decade between the late 80s and early '90s, making Ross a familiar face (and 'fro) to many millennial TV watchers.

Even those who haven't seen the program likely recognize Ross from the various internet memes, video remixes and pop culture references he's inspired over the past 10 years.

"Every 80s baby remembers Bob Ross, the gentle-voiced art instructor whose public television show brought 'happy trees' and 'almighty mountains' to life before your eyes," wrote Leigh Alexander for Boing Boing on Friday. "The Twitchers are transfixed by Ross, his warm throwback style and the way he summons lakes and fir trees to the canvas as if anybody, even you, could do it.

"Whenever Bob finishes a painting, everyone types 'GG', or 'good game', a common post-competition sign-off. Lots of the people typing 'can Bob respond to chat?' are trolling; some of them might just be young and genuinely hopeful. You can't know, really."

Some on Twitter have reported that they're painting along with Ross, but others are simply enjoying the show. 

You can view the stream for yourself here until Nov. 7.