Help Bring the World to Bob Ross’s Surprise Birthday Party on Oct. 29th at 4:51 PM EST!

For more than twelve years, I have been creating Happy Little Hairdos: an expanding collection of more than 20,000 alternate Bob Ross realities. In 2025, it moved from Parody to Purpose as the line was drawn in the sand to stand up for PBS, the station that made Bob possible.

What began as a meme moved to meaning, and the body of work underscored how important imagination is. I knew in 2015 when I first drew that red hat on Bob that it was time to "Make America Paint Again."

I call this world the Bobberverse, what quantum physicists refer to as the Multi-Ross. Now, every part of this twelve-year project is moving toward one SINGULAR objective:

On October 29, Bob Ross’s birthday, I want to bring as many people as possible to a Surprise Birthday Party for Bob!

At exactly 4:51 pm Eastern, people across the country and around the world will gather online and sign one enormous digital birthday card at www.happylittlehairdos.com

But this will not be an ordinary birthday card. The post is the party.

The post is the card. The post is the petition. The post is the protest.

Everyone who can't show up to the 2nd Annual Million Bob March in Washington, DC will be with us in the Bobberverse!

Every signature, comment, reaction, and share will become part of one synchronized public action, a visible show of support for creativity, kindness, imagination, public media, and the idea that art still belongs to everyone.

At that same moment, I will be on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., dressed as Bob Ross for the 2nd annual Million Bob March.

The physical gathering in Washington and the digital gathering online will become one event: a surprise birthday party unfolding simultaneously in public space, on social media, in the metaverse, and within the algorithm.

October 29 is the Day of Bobservance.

Why the Exact Moment Matters

Social movements have always depended on people showing up together. Today, “showing up” does not only mean standing in the same physical location. It also means appearing together inside the digital systems that determine what the world sees.

By asking thousands, or eventually millions, of people to interact with a single birthday-card post at exactly 4:51 p.m. Eastern, we are deliberately using the algorithm in our favor for Bob and PBS. We are focusing on a single timestamp and creating a signature with a measurable public weight. So when I show up to Congress with a citizen-written bill, like Mr. Rogers testifying in the Senate in 1969, I will be armed not only with my Quiet Riot Shield but also with a digital Birthday Card Petition for Bob and Public Media Funding.

The algorithm normally decides what becomes visible.

On October 29, we will use coordinated participation to answer back.

The party becomes a petition. The timestamp becomes a gathering place. The signatures become evidence that people still care about Bob Ross, public media, creative education, and the democratization of imagination.

This is the natural progression of public action: part march, part artwork, part digital collectible, part petition, part birthday party, and part peaceful protest.

The project has already received meaningful validation. My work and the larger questions surrounding Happy Little Hairdos have been featured in national media, including The New York Times. Congressman Frank Mrvan talked about the Million Bob March on PBS; I have appeared on PBS dressed as Bob Ross, organized the First Million Bob March, created Bob Mob activations, and spent more than a decade building this body of work.

Now is the moment to bring it all together.

Everything Builds Toward Bob’s Birthday

On July 4, I will appear as "The Varnisher" outside Trump Tower, and another rumor has it Bob will make an appearance near the Obama Presidential Center.

In September, I will speak in New York City about the Bobberverse at the world's largest conference for digital collectibles, NFT.NYC. I will be speaking about creative ownership, participatory art, and how artists can use emerging technology to build communities around living bodies of work.

I am preparing a filmed journey to Tennessee for a symbolic haircut that will become part of a collaborative artwork. My actual hair will be preserved and felted into a Happy Little Hairdo, transforming the artist himself into part of the canvas.

I'm organizing Bob Mobs, producing protest paintings, creating shirts and public artwork, building the Bobbershop, releasing digital collectibles, contacting the media, reaching out to public officials, and inviting artists, organizations, stations, and ordinary people to join the campaign.

Every haircut, canvas, Bob Mob, shirt, sticker, interview, speech, collectible, and public appearance is an invitation leading people toward the same moment:

October 29 at 4:51 p.m. Eastern.

What Your Contribution Makes Possible

Your support helps fund the road to Bob Ross’s surprise birthday party and the second annual Million Bob March, including:

Travel to New York City for my September speaking appearance
Travel to Tennessee for the filmed haircut
The haircut itself and the production of the haircut film
Bob Mob activations in multiple cities
Canvases, paints, brushes, easels, signs, and public-performance supplies
Shirts, wigs, costumes, spray paint, stencils, stickers, cards, flyers, banners, and QR codes
Video production, photography, editing, and documentation
Website development for the birthday card and Bobberverse
The first working version of the Bobbershop and Bob wallet
Digital collectible production and archiving
Marketing, advertising, press outreach, and social-media promotion
Travel, transportation, lodging, and setup for Washington, D.C.
Registration and coordination with the National Park Service
Sound, tables, tents, displays, signage, portable power, and event infrastructure for the National Mall
Merchandise production that can help the campaign become financially sustainable
The time required to organize volunteers, contact the press, build partnerships, produce art, and bring thousands of people into one coordinated action

The Founding 100

The first one hundred people who contribute $100 or more in 2026 will become members of the Founding 100.

Each Founding 100 supporter will receive a unique, numbered 1/1 commemorative Bob digital collectible and permanent recognition as one of the people who helped build the road to October 29.

These works are pieces of digital art and records of participation. They represent something more important: proof that you were there at the beginning of this stage of the Bobberverse.

Why This Matters Now

This campaign is arriving at a moment when public media, arts education, shared cultural spaces, and even our basic ability to agree on reality are under enormous pressure.

Bob Ross taught generations of people that creativity was not reserved for professionals. You did not need permission, status, wealth, or formal training to make something beautiful.

You only needed the courage to begin.

The surprise birthday party carries that message into the digital age.

It asks what can happen when people do not merely scroll past something they believe in, but consciously arrive together.

It turns passive attention into participation.

It turns a birthday card into a public record.

It turns an online post into a peaceful demonstration.

It turns the algorithm into an organizing tool.

And it places that visible public signature into the national conversation as the country moves toward the midterm elections.

This is not simply a tribute to Bob Ross.

Bob is the lens.

The larger work is about imagination, identity, public culture, creative possibility, digital ownership, public media, and the right of ordinary people to recognize themselves as artists and participants in history.

The artwork already exists.

The movement has already begun.

Now I need your help building the road to Bob Ross’s Birthday.

Help us fill the National Mall.

Help us gather inside the algorithm.

Help us sign the world’s largest birthday card.

Help us turn one timestamp into a movement.

On October 29 at 4:51 p.m. Eastern, come to the Bobberverse and help us surprise Bob.

Below is from the 2025 campaign and its humble beginnings.

I am not only an artist because of PBS, I am the man I am today because of people like Bob Ross and Mark Kistler, who taught me how to draw and paint. They gave me more than lessons in art. They gave me a vision of life itself as a creative act. Now we prepare for the 2nd Annual Million Bob March in D.C. on Bob's Birthday!

Now it is my turn to do what I can: to Protect Bob's Station, to protect imagination for the next generation. Because a nation that neglects imagination neglects its children's future. I had the distinct honor of speaking as Bob Ross in a 24-minute interview on PBS, carrying forward his spirit in defense of the imagination he gave us all.

The 2nd Annual Million Bob March is our rallying cry. Bob was quiet, but now we can't afford to be. On October 29th in Washington, D.C., we will gather with a creative vision in the Joy of Protesting to defend PBS and the imagination of every child. Below is a video of Congressman Mrvan talking about the

Your support will cover the essential costs to bring this movement to life: production and media, stickers and printed materials, travel to events, afro wigs and props, advertising to spread the word, and all the creative tools I need for this campaign to take off and reach the national stage. We raised $2,500 for the first year, and while it helped make some historic things possible, like the "Bobtizing" of the Lion in front of the Art Institute in Chicago and my appearance as the Varnisher in the New York Times article, we are going to need more resources this year to really make a huge impact as we go into primaries. The first goal will be to raise an additional $ 4,000 to gear up for this summer.

Protect Bob’s Station. Protect the imagination for the next generation.

How You Can Be Part of It

Everyone is invited to come dressed as Bob Ross on Oct.29th, and it will be a National Day of Bobservance. If you can't make it to D.C., just go to school and work dressed as Bob. The fro, the blue denim, the joy. Together, we’ll make Washington look like a living canvas. REGISTER HERE

Leading up to the March, I will be organizing smaller Bob Mobs and appearing at festivals and events. I will need you to join me when you can so we can send a message of collective Joy!

I will be “Bobtizing” more statues as the campaign unfolds, installing giant afros on public monuments as a surreal form of protest art. The funds raised here will help me fabricate those afros.

We are moving in the spirit of Mr. Rogers Goes to Washington. In 1969, Fred Rogers testified before the Senate to save PBS. Now, in 2025, we are going back to Washington to fight for PBS again.

Why I’m Raising Funds

Your support will cover the essential costs to bring this movement to life:

Production of videos and media
Stickers, shirts, and printed materials
Fabrication of afros and protest art
Travel to Bob Mobs and to Washington, D.C.
Advertising to reach a national audience

This is a minimal budget. Every additional dollar will help us build bigger, bolder, and more imaginative actions.

My Lineage & Legacy

This movement is part of my life’s work. In 2008, I protested fossil fuel dependence and was arrested on the roof of a gas station as part of an artistic act of civil disobedience. I then rode my bicycle all the way to Washington, D.C. If this campaign hits its goals and grows, I will once again ride my bicycle from Indiana to Washington, this time with a fro on my helmet, to raise awareness and funds for PBS.

When I originally showed Sally Schenk, Bob's friend and director of The Joy of Painting, my work honoring Bob's legacy, she told me, "Bob would have loved this; he would have loved you. Keep doing what you're doing." I asked if she would sit with us in the spirit of The Joy of Painting and help direct and produce the pilot for The Joy of Felting, and she said she would.

I'm also producing art I hope to see in major auction houses like Christie’s or Sotheby’s, with proceeds going toward PBS efforts.

A Personal Offering

For almost two years, I have been growing my hair, just as Bob Ross once grew his permed fro to save money on haircuts. But I have realized I've been growing it for a more metaphysical purpose. Bob fought cancer at the end of his life and had to wear a wig with a smile as he was losing that battle. Now, I will cut my hair and, with Laura’s artistry, place it onto an image of Bob I illustrated 10 years ago for my Happy Little Hairdos collection. This piece will be auctioned, with the proceeds going to Locks of Love — giving a “Bald Bob” his fro back. (See my hair in the video below)

The Call

This isn't about me. This is about us. This is about protecting Bob’s station and protecting the imagination for the next generation.

Every dollar helps. Every share matters. Every wig worn, every brush raised, every smile in the crowd is a brushstroke on the canvas of a better tomorrow.

Protect Bob’s Station. Protect the imagination for the next generation.

J.J. Weinberg aka Bob Ross Protest Variant

www.happylittlehairdos.com

Support the 2nd Annual Million Bob March to Save PBS

Still $2,660 to go. Help us build momentum.