Chuck Norris Was the Ultimate Meme of the 2000s

Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment To Baby Boomers, Chuck Norris was a legitimate martial arts master. To Gen X, he was Colonel Braddock from Missing In Action and Walker in Walker, Texas Ranger. But to a wider swath of millennials and older Gen Z, he was the man who created the grand canyon when he went skydiving, who the boogeyman looks for under his bed and who built the same hospital he was born in. Norris, who died Friday at 86 after being hospitalized a day prior, will of course be remembered in Hollywood as an uber-manly action star whose very brand was built on being tough, similar to the likes of Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. But that campy level of machismo gave way to an even more ubiquitous spot in a later era of the pop-culture zeitgeist — as a famous meme thanks to Chuck Norris Facts. Related Stories TV Chuck Norris, Walloping Star of 'Walker, Texas Ranger,' Dies at 86 Movies Richard Norton, Actor, Martial Arts Expert, Trainer and Stuntman, Dies at 75 Based on the sheer longevity of the category, there’s a case to be made that Chuck Norris was the defining meme of the 2000s, up there with other famed web trends like LOLcats and Rickrolling . The internet moves fast, and it is rare for memes to take on the life the Norris trend lived — and will likely live on. Those born in the late ‘90s and beyond may have never seen an episode of Walker, Texas Ranger or known much about his eponymous karate style, the Chuck Norris System. Rather, their first exposure to Norris came from the meme. It spread in part because the joke was perpetuated by an infinite scale of absurdity. The more impossible the feat, the funnier the joke. Still, even for those who knew nothing of the man until they heard a “fact” for the first time, the meme brought Norris to another ...