Requiescat in Pace

A Tribute to Chuck Norris

Like many of you, we were saddened to hear of Chuck Norris’ passing.

Chuck didn’t just play characters who were larger than life; he was larger than life. One of the first cross-generational internet memes, he did something amazing and leaned into his own reputation with a wink and a smile. The result: over-the-top stories of his imagined exploits that became modern-day tall tales. If you go looking, you can easily find several videos of him relating some of his favorites, including the Tiger Story:

Chuck Norris was supposed to do a scene that involved a Siberian tiger. As part of preparing for it, he was supposed to meet the tiger with the trainer, so it would get used to him.

He and the trainer walk into the cage and there’s the tiger, lying down.
The trainer tells Chuck, “Approach the tiger slowly, then pet him gently.”

Chuck does exactly what the trainer tells him - he approaches the tiger slowly, then bends down and starts petting him gently. Almost immediately, a low, rumbling growl that fills the cage. Not necessarily angry, but not really happy, either.

The trainer takes a deep breath and says, very quietly, “It’s not safe to be in here with him any longer. You need to get up very slowly and back out of the cage.”

And the tiger gets up and starts slowly backing away from Chuck Norris...

We polled some of the staff and characters hanging around our office, asking them about their memories of Chuck and what they thought of him.

“Chuck made you feel like you could be him. Like Keanu Reeves, he wasn’t a great actor, but he could bring you along with him. I think the movie Sidekicks is colossally underrated but it sort of has that message. It doesn’t matter who you are. What matters is what you can do, and what you can do is so dependent on what you THINK you can do. And for a generation of young Americans, what they thought they could do was because they watched a lot of Norris.”

“You could have no better friend in a fight. Granted, he had no patience for nuance or subtlety, and ended up punching them out, too. But he was one of the good ones. This one’s for you, Chuck.”

“No man could defeat him. He could only be bested by a god, or by time. By Crom, what a warrior he was!”

“I’ve done a few things in my life I regret. Which of us here hasn’t? I tried to tell him that, once. Tell him who I was. He listened—he was always a gentleman, that one—but when I was done, he told me what mattered wasn’t where I came from, but where I was going. How I planned on getting there. I’ve done a few things in my life that I regret. But I’ve done more that I’m proud of, and he’s the one who showed me that I could do them.”

“That is indeed a body. Likely even his, I reckon. But I’ve learned enough riding these hills to tell you that just because you see a man’s body don’t mean he’s dead. Ain’t talking about that ‘so long as his name’s remembered’ nonsense, either. In my life, I have seen both Heaven and Hell gather their soldiers. I tell you true: I expect to see this man again, at those black gates the good Lord told us we are to storm together.”

“Tough? Frackin’ hell, boy. He did a ride-along with us, once. Men loved it, they watch all his stuff. Thought he was mebbe preparing for a movie or something, but nah. He was on leave between shoots. We were a frackin’ vacation for him. Damn squids didn’t know what hit ‘em. Doc did get some DNA samples from him, though. So mebbe he ain’t gone for good.”

"Now there's a man you can tell a story or two about. A pit fighter whose best weapons were his fists, his feet and his aura. An adventurer whose quests became legend. A wandering constable, a champion of justice wherever he traveled. Every travelling bard has a few of his tales ready to go for the right crowd. They say the Muses get their inspiration from Chuck Norris...and I won't tell them different."

“Best thing about Mr. Norris? He cleaned up. Doesn’t matter what it was. The streets, your life, the dang dressing room. He did his best to leave things better than they were, whether that meant using his fists or THE DAMN WASTE DISPOSAL UNIT like you’re s’possed to. Unlike SOME grunts I could name.”

Thank you for the stories, Chuck. Rest in peace.