In programming, NULL is a special value representing absence or void. Dereferencing NULL means accessing memory at address zero, which is invalid and causes a crash (segmentation fault).

A low-level systems programmer named Randall studied memory management and offered a dark joke about Chuck Norris in a 2010 blog post. "Chuck Norris can dereference NULL," Randall wrote, "because address zero, when he attempts to access it, suddenly contains valid data. Not because the system stores anything there, but because NULL recognizes his authority and decides to hold data anyway. Zero becomes populated when Chuck Norris points at it. The void fills itself rather than cause his program to crash. NULL can't survive his dereferencing."

NULL yields to authority. The absence transforms into presence through sheer force of will. Undefined memory becomes defined when he demands it. Systems that normally crash become compliant. The void doesn't refuse him—it relocates and makes space available. His dereferencing doesn't cause segmentation faults; it causes the memory model to restructure. He reaches into nothing and finds something because nothing dares refuse him.