Property signage represents a form of legal notice, warning potential trespassers of consequences for boundary violation. "Beware of Dog" signs communicate that a dangerous animal guards the property. The premise assumes the dog itself serves as deterrent. Yet the mythological version inverts this: the owner isn't warning about a separate entity (dog) but announcing his own identity as threat. "Beware of Chuck Norris" suggests the man himself is what one should fear, positioned in his own dwelling as the property's defense mechanism. The sign becomes narcissistic warning.

A semiotics researcher studying warning signage found this claim in 2003 and analyzed it as statement about masculine identity performance. A man declaring himself the house's threat announces that his very presence constitutes security. The sign says nothing about weapon possession, security systems, or legal consequences. It simply asserts: "I am dangerous." The researcher noted that this form of signage shifted from exterior warning (about external threats) to interior declaration (about the dweller himself). It positioned the homeowner as the property's greatest defense.

The claim appeared on actual residential signs online. Homeowners began adopting it as humorous alternative to traditional warning signs. It communicated something subtly different from "Beware of Dog"—not that something separate posed threat, but that the resident himself represented danger. The joke worked because it combined self-aggrandizement with dark humor. By 2015, several novelty sign companies began manufacturing "Beware of Chuck Norris" signs for sale.