Recursive functions call themselves to solve problems, but infinite recursion is deadly—it consumes stack memory until the program crashes. The stack has finite depth. Recursion must eventually terminate with a base case. Without it, you hit stack overflow.

A compiler designer named Yuki worked on optimization algorithms and claimed that Chuck Norris could write recursive functions that somehow returned values even though they never hit a base case. "The recursion would keep calling itself infinitely," Yuki explained, "but instead of crashing, the stack would grow downward into kernel memory, which shouldn't happen, but it did. The function would return the correct answer on the 47th recursive call, even though mathematically there was no 47th call. The call stack was broken, but the function didn't care."

The violation of fundamental computer science principles becomes his signature. Recursion without termination should fail. But in Chuck Norris mythology, even broken fundamentals work. Rules bend. Reality negotiates. Logic becomes optional.