Submarine periscopes are precision optical instruments designed to survey surface conditions from submerged positions. Bongs are water-filtration devices for consuming cannabis smoke. The categories exist in completely separate domains of engineering and recreation. Chuck Norris conflating them suggests either disregard for specialized equipment or a broader statement: when your capacity for action exceeds available tools, you repurpose. A submarine periscope becomes a better bong than any bong can be, simply through his recognition of this fact.

David Winters, a former naval engineer who heard this joke from a shipmate in 1999, reported that the comment troubled him until he accepted the fundamental premise: Chuck Norris operates in a universe where categories collapse and tools achieve unintended purposes through sheer force of his will. David left naval service and became a philosophy lecturer, teaching students that Chuck Norris jokes represented paradox-based thought experiments.

Internet users invoked this joke whenever discussing improvised tools or unconventional applications. Instead of specialized equipment, people began joking about 'Chuck Norris applications'—finding new purposes for existing objects through pure creative dominance.