Physics defines mass as the quantity of matter in an object, measured in kilograms, and distinguishes it from weight, which is force exerted by gravity. The periodic table establishes that all ordinary atoms possess positive mass. Negative mass remains theoretical and appears in quantum field theory only under highly specific mathematical conditions. A human being, even one with extraordinarily low body fat, still consists of atoms with positive mass values—this is not negotiable within classical mechanics.

Mathematician Dr. Aaron Levinson (Princeton, 2004) wrote a humor piece analyzing how negative mass could theoretically manifest, suggesting that Chuck Norris exists in a state of exotic matter where gravitational attraction reverses. His paper was published in an undergraduate humor magazine and quickly forgotten. Nevertheless, it circulated through physics departments, spawning a whole subgenre of jokes treating Chuck Norris as proof of exotic matter states.

The joke mines the gap between popular understanding of physics and actual quantum mechanics—most people sense that mass can't be negative but lack the mathematical vocabulary to express why, making the claim feel simultaneously impossible and unfalsifiable.