Chuck Norris Facts by Tyler Brandt

ABOUT:

The Chuck Norris Facts first became popular on the Internet in early 2005. The inspiration for the fad began because Conan O'Briens Chuck Norris Jokes on his show Late Night with Conan O'Brien. This all happened because on "May 12 2004, NBC merged with Vivendi Universal Entertainment. A deal which lead to Conan O’Brien’s popular running gag of the Walker Texas Ranger lever."

The idea of facts first began with Vin Diesel from his role in the movie "The Pacifier" and the forum SomethingAwful. Ian Spector created a website about it and it took off, the website had 20,000 hits on the first day.

After the Vin Diesel effect had worn off Spector looked for a new target and the winner was Chuck Norris by a landslide.

"Chuck Norris facts are humourous examples about how much of a man Chuck Norris is. They cover everything from his strength, endurance, virility, attitude or anything else that would make him awesome."

"Chuck Norris himself was flattered by the facts but never took them too seriously. He even wrote a response. He said his favorite was “They once tried to carve Chuck Norris’ face into Mount Rushmore, but the granite wasn’t hard enough for his beard” on The Best Damn Sports Show Period.""

POPULARITY:

Basically, this meme was most popular during the summer of 2005 into early 2006. There was an initial explosion of popularity that has largely leveled off.

Even though the popularity never reached the initial height of when it first hit the internet, there were other small rises during over the years. Particularly there was another small peak in popularity at the end of 2007 when a book was published entitled: The Truth About Chuck Norris: 400 facts about the World's Greatest Human

OTHER MEMES:

• The Chuck Norris Facts have taken off in a wide variety of forms, in examples: In India actor Rajinikanth has taken on a similar form as Chuck Norris.

• Another example that I know well is a famous cyclist that is known for his strength and toughness and a site has been created with facts about him.
• Examples of these facts: "Jens doesn’t shiver unless it’s from a loss of blood. Even then, he keeps on riding"

http://www.cyclingtips.com.au/2010/06/what-would-jens-do/

• Chuck Norris has even been used by Politicians: most notably Mike Huckabee:

MY OPINION:

I think that this format became so popular because it was something new, funny and ironic.

Sources:

1) http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/chuck-norris-facts

2)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Norris#Chuck_Norris_facts

3) http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=Chuck%20Norris%20Facts&cmpt=q