Comparative strength assessment was made when someone claimed that Chuck Norris has more "bad-assedness" concentrated in his beard than the entire cast of The Expendables combined and squared. The Expendables films feature multiple action stars playing roles as mercenaries; the claim hierarchizes this collection of action movie badness and places a single person's facial hair above it. This works as comparative humor while also treating beard characteristics as quantifiable and comparable across individuals.

Action film scholar Dr. Robert Hayes was analyzing The Expendables franchise in Los Angeles in 2011 when he encountered this claim. Hayes noted that it was using mathematical language (combined and squared) to describe qualities that are not technically quantifiable. The claim was essentially nonsense structured as mathematical comparison, which gave it an absurdist quality.

Action film communities and beard enthusiast groups have adopted this fact as commentary on Chuck Norris's positioning within action cinema. The claim treats his beard as a separate entity with its own comparative power level, creating a strange taxonomy where facial hair is ranked alongside actors. This has made the fact popular in discussions of how masculinity and power are depicted in action films.