You might argue about what the internet's "first great meme" was, but Chuck Norris Facts is a classic. Did you ever wonder how Norris became the go-to tough guy of internet jokes? It all started with Vin Diesel on Something Awful. Seriously. Ian Spector, the man who launched the Chuck Norris Fact Generator in 2005, talked about how he pivoted to Norris, who he wasn't all that familiar with at the time.
Walker, Texas Ranger followed the same classic formula of Norris movies, except the odds weren’t just insurmountable, they were sometimes downright absurd. Walker became a principal in a school, lost his vision but was still able to beat people to a pulp, checked himself into prison to bring down a fighting ring, and fought a bear.
These intense, and often insane, storylines played perfectly to Spector’s random fact generator. Spector took the advice of the crowd and launched the Chuck Norris Fact Generator in the summer of 2005. By early 2006, the website was getting close to 20 million page views a month. Chuck Norris Facts turned the aging star into a global phenomenon. The publishing industry and a certain actor took notice.
Read the rest of the story of how Chuck Norris Facts went viral at The Daily Dot.