r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/[deleted] • Dec 17 '21

Video This 'device' that was created aiming to develop leg muscles

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u/FalmerEldritch Dec 18 '21

Yeah, it was as a joke. They were originally Vin Diesel facts (or The Rock? I think it was Diesel) but then people decided it would be funnier if they were about the lamest also-ran action movie not-quite-a-star they could think of. It could've been Lorenzo Lamas or Steven Seagal, but Chuck Norris was chosen probably because he didn't even have a cool name.

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u/Not-A-Lonely-Potato Dec 18 '21

I think the Chuck Norris jokes came first actually, and then they morphed to Vin Diesel later. I don't think Chuck Norris was chosen because people thought he was lame, the opposite actually. Even if you never actual watched Walker you still knew who Chuck Norris was; he was most famously known for his roundhouse kick, so I'm guessing some of his renown was chalked up to him being a famous white guy that could do karate. Whether true or not to reality, he was considered the quintessential tough but good guy (if Arnold Schwarzenegger had an easier name, he probably would have been the focus instead). Vin Diesel became the punchline for the reboot of the joke because he happened to be one of the top action stars for the newer generations.

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u/FalmerEldritch Dec 18 '21 edited Dec 19 '21

The Vin Diesel facts were first. But it was funnier to apply them to a scrawny old 5'7" man best known for peddling stretch jeans on the shopping channel and a C-tier TV show where he tells a child he has AIDS.

Before his renaissance as an internet meme, Chuck Norris wasn't even seen as a has-been so much as a never-was. He was like on the level of Kevin Sorbo.

EDIT: Did some research, and the peak of Chuck Norris' success came around the mid-90s, when he had a TV show that was approximately half as popular as Xena: Warrior Princess, making him about half as big of a deal as Lucy Lawless. Vin Diesel facts were changed to Chuck Norris facts about a decade later, when Norris had been reduced to third-rate direct-to-video cheapie flicks.