Add the cyberworld to the lists of conquests of Chuck Norris, America's champion of truth, justice, fair play and butt-kicking.

For the past few months, chat rooms, MySpace pages and e-mail boxes have been filled with curious Chuck Norris "facts," boastful claims about his strength, virility and toughness. A mere mention of his name within an online game such as World of Warcraft will provoke a flurry of such statements as, "Chuck Norris does not go hunting. Chuck Norris goes killing."

And posting Norris facts on the sprawling online bulletin board somethingawful .com will get a user banned faster than a Norris roundhouse kick.

advertisement

The phenomenon has spawned a rash of imitators, from Mr. T facts to Helen Thomas facts, which celebrate the octogenarian White House reporter.

In a statement on his Web site, chucknorris.com, Norris weighed in on the craze:

"I've seen some of them. Some are funny. Some are pretty far-out. Being more a student of the Wild West than the wild world of the Internet, I'm not quite sure what to make of it. It's quite surprising. I do know that boys will be boys, and I neither take offense nor take these things too seriously."

So in honor of America's favorite black-belt Vietnam vet, Special Forces commando and Texas Ranger, let's take a look at the truth and the legend behind Chuck Norris. Try to separate the facts from the "facts."

• The quickest way to a man's heart is with Chuck Norris' fist.

• Chuck Norris is half Cherokee and half Irish.

• The chief export of Chuck Norris is pain.

• He served as an MP in the Air Force in the 1950s.

• Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.

• Chuck Norris made his film debut in the Dean Martin film The Wrecking Crew.

• Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried.

• He was offered the role of the villainous sensei in the Karate Kid. He turned it down.

• Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.

• Chuck Norris wrote a Wild West-era novel, The Justice Riders.

• What was going through the minds of all of Chuck Norris' victims before they died? His shoe.

• Norris' martial-arts students include Price Is Right host Bob Barker, Steve McQueen, Priscilla Presley and Donnie and Marie Osmond.

• In fine print on the last page of the Guinness Book of World Records it notes that all world records are held by Chuck Norris, and those listed in the book are simply the closest anyone else has ever gotten.

• He is a world-record-holding speedboat racer.

• The leading causes of death in the United States are: 1. Heart disease 2. Chuck Norris 3. Cancer.

• Norris was the first man in the Western Hemisphere to be awarded an eighth-degree black-belt grand master for tae kwon do.

• When Chuck Norris talks, everybody listens. And dies.

• When he's not beating up bad guys, Norris is busy as a humanitarian, working with the United Way, the Veterans Affairs and his own Kick-Start Foundation for at-risk kids.

• Chuck Norris has two speeds. Walk and Kill.