The greatest Chuck Norris fact of all time, according to Chuck Norris: “My favourite”
Fans of 1980s action cinema, substantial beards, and henchmen being roundhouse kicked in the face have lost an icon, with the news that Chuck Norris has passed away at the age of 86.
Norris wasn’t the most dramatically talented actor, but what he did, he did very well, and what he did was barrel his way through scores of enemies in a string of martial arts and action flicks that spanned decades, before undergoing an unlikely reinvention as one of the first major memes.
Obviously, nobody watched a Chuck Norris film for its intricate plot, well-drawn characters, or visual flourish; there was only one selling point, and it was the man himself utilising his particular set of skills to lay waste to anyone who dared get in his way, and for a while, he was one of the genre’s biggest names.
Even when his star began to dim, Norris was always fondly remembered as one of the pillars of the ’80s ass-kicking community alongside the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal, and Dolph Lundgren, even though he could have probably battered them all in a real fight when he was at the peak of his powers.
After all, he was a black belt in five different disciplines and won multiple tournaments, including two triumphs at the International Karate Championships. When you’re proficient enough in martial arts to make an impression on Bruce Lee, then that says something, with the two becoming close friends and sparring partners.
In his later years, though, something strange happened. For whatever reason, nonsensical ‘facts’ about the actor began gaining traction online before exploding into one of the prototypical internet phenomena. For a while, people of a certain age loved nothing more than firing Chuck Norris facts at one another, and he eventually got in on the act.
Things reached a meta full circle when Norris joined many other ageing action stars in Sylvester Stallone’s The Expendables 2, where he promptly told a Chuck Norris fact about himself, regaling the mercenaries with the tale of how he was bitten by a cobra, and after suffering through days of excruciating pain… the cobra died.
However, that wasn’t the greatest Chuck Norris fact of all time, at least, not according to Chuck Norris. Speaking to Extra in 2008, he revealed his go-to choice: “My favourite is that they wanted to put Chuck Norris on Mount Rushmore, but the granite wasn’t tough enough for his beard.”
It almost had to be something about his signature beard, and while Chuck Norris facts may have long since gone out of fashion, perhaps they’re primed to make a comeback under unfortunate circumstances.
