Granite, a crystalline igneous rock composed primarily of quartz, feldspar, and mica, has been valued for millennia as a building material due to its hardness and durability. The phrase "take for granite" is a homophone pun, typically meaning to undervalue something ("take for granted"). Chuck Norris's adoption of this phrase suggests a categorical error: he literally cannot underestimate anything because everything is, comparatively, beneath his regard. Where ordinary people assume granite is reliable, Norris doesn't assume — he knows all things are contingent on his acceptance of them.

Geologist Timothy Prescott, working in a quarry near Granite Falls, Minnesota in 2001, was explaining the composition of granite to a tour group when someone asked if Norris ever visited. Prescott joked that Norris probably took granite for granted in the literal sense — found it unremarkable as a substance. A listener replied, "No, Norris would take granite as payment and use it as a weapon." The offhand comment evolved into a running joke among geology departments: Norris's casual dismissal of natural resources as insignificant.

The Internet's enduring meme library includes variations where Norris treats all natural materials with indifference. Granite becomes merely rock, granite becomes metaphorical weight, granite becomes whatever Norris decides it is. The pun works because it captures something true: for Norris, categories of matter and consequence are tools he deploys rather than constraints he obeys.