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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   2242 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for March 20, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Chuck Norris dead at the age of 86. RIP.

The reason I'm putting it in the fun thread is that my first exposure to him was via "Chuck Norris facts", an early 2000s internet meme so old that I think it literally predated the term "internet meme". These were outlandish examples of Norris's awesome skills in the cardinal domains of mortal combat, womanising and lovemaking. I think someone even gave me a paperback book compiling the best examples from the website of the same name. Aside from his very brief cameo in Dodgeball, I still have not seen any of Norris's movies or TV shows, nor do I intend to.

My favourite Chuck Norris facts:

  • Chuck Norris once went to the Virgin Islands. They are now called the Islands.
  • Wilt Chamberlain claims to have had sex with 20,000 women in his life. Chuck Norris calls this a "slow Tuesday".

For some reason my memory of Chuck Norris was blended with my memory of WoW. Maybe because of Barrens Chat?

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/249062-world-of-warcraft-classic/41897772

Notably, Chuck Norris facts were a more popular variation of earlier Vin Diesel facts.

  • The anagram of "Vin Diesel" is "I end lives"

Britney Spears was also an anagram for Presbyterians.

Chuck Norris is so fast he can run around the world and punch himself in the back of the head.

Chuck Norris knows Victoria's Secret.

There is no evolution, just a list of creatures Chuck Norris allows to live.

Chuck Norris created giraffes when he hit a horse with an uppercut.

Chuck Norris can speak French in Russian.

Chuck Norris doesn't turn the lights on, he turns the dark off.

Chuck Norris can kill two stones with one bird.

Chuck Norris once told a woman to calm down, and she did.

Chuck Norris created giraffes when he hit a horse with an uppercut.

This is such a funny mental image, in addition to being a weirdly Lysenkoist joke.

an early 2000s internet meme so old that I think it literally predated the term "internet meme"

Ahem

The term "meme" was coined in 1976. That's three decades earlier than Chuck Norris Facts which appeared in early 2005. As far as old school internet memes go, Chuck Norris Facts is almost something of a newcomer compared to eg. All Your Base Are Belong To Us which did the rounds starting from 1999.

The word meme was was not commonly used to refer to internet memes until ~2008, and then only in contexts outside of where memes developed. There was a period where no one who made or disseminated memes ever referred to them as “memes” and doing so was seen as passé. This changed with the popularity of Reddit, but we have now returned to a period where memes are no longer referred to as such — contagious social transmissions are now “trends”, or just “images” if referring to images that go viral as reaction comments on shortform social media. It is an interesting fact to explore that the surest way to disrupt the popularity of a meme is to call it a “meme”, filing it away immediately at a category of ephemeral expression soon to be forgotten.

I understand the vintage of the term "meme". What I meant was that I don't remember people referring to Chuck Norris facts as an "internet meme" contemporaneously. My recollection is that, at the time, we just called them "internet jokes" or similar.

Death Chuck Norrised at the age of 4,000,000,000. RIP.

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