I recently introduced my children to the style of humor called Chuck Norris “facts”. If you don’t know who Chuck Norris is, here’s him as a young man fighting Bruce Lee:

And here is an older Chuck Norris playing Walker, Texas Ranger:

Since he (that is, his character) eventually loses in the fight with Bruce Lee, I presume that Walker, Texas Ranger has more to do with Chuck Norris’s reputation. Be that as it may, there is a popular style of humor which is a list of facts about Chuck Norris that describes how tough and good at fighting he is. For example

A cobra once bit Chuck Norris on the leg. After five agonizing days, the cobra finally died.

Another great Chuck Norris fact is:

Chuck Norris’s periodic table only has one element on it: the element of surprise.

My boys (at the time of writing, 10 and 7) have really taken to these facts, and even tried inventing their own. The seven year old understands the element of exaggeration, but he (unsurprisingly) has difficulty with the element of setting up an expectation. So his versions tend to be things like:

Chuck Norris can punch a black hole and blow it up.

I’m not normally one for puns, but it lacks punch. Anyway, there are a lot of great Chuck Norris facts. I’m not going to reprint an entire archive of them (many of which can be found with a simple google search), but here is a selection of my favorites:

• On a math test, Chuck Norris answered “violence” for every problem and got an A+, because Chuck Norris can solve every problem with violence.
• Chuck Norris can speak French, in Russian.
• Chuck Norris can kill two stones with one bird.
• Chuck Norris can strangle you with a cordless phone.
• Chuck Norris can pick apples from an orange tree and make the best lemonade you’ve ever tasted.
• Chuck Norris tells Simon what to do.
• When the Bogeyman goes to sleep at night, he checks under his bed for Chuck Norris.
• Chuck Norris doesn’t cheat death. He wins fair and square.
• Bigfoot claims he once saw Chuck Norris.
• Superman owns a pair of Chuck Norris pajamas.
• Chuck Norris once won a staring context with the sun.
• Fear of spiders is called arachnophobia, fear of confined spaces is called claustrophobia, and fear of Chuck Norris is called common sense.