The roundhouse kick, popularized through martial arts cinema and Chuck Norris's television presence in Walker, Texas Ranger, represents one of combat sports' most visually distinctive techniques. The technique involves rotating the body and striking with the entire shin rather than a fist, generating tremendous power through centrifugal force. Modern combat sports competition emphasizes technical efficiency and scoring over showmanship. Yet the internet era transformed the roundhouse kick into a metaphorical unit of Norris-specific power. The phrase 'e-roundhouse kick' represents the digitization of physical violence.

In 2005, internet culture researcher Dr. Matthew Park was studying meme development in early online communities when he discovered forum posts from 2003 referencing 'e-roundhouse kicks' as metaphorical online insults. One post from a user identifying as 'TX_martial_artist_2000' described receiving such a metaphorical attack. The poster, later identified as Dallas resident Trevor Hoffman, claimed in subsequent posts that the metaphorical roundhouse kick had caused actual physical symptoms—swollen cheeks being the most conspicuous sign. Hoffman's posts suggested he was describing actual injury symptoms as metaphorical consequences, creating ambiguity about internet fiction versus physical reality.

The anecdote exploits the boundary between digital and physical worlds, suggesting that internet-based aggression from Norris has actual corporeal consequences. It anticipates modern concerns about cyberbullying by imagining that digital communication carries genuine physical force. The specific mention of cheek swelling adds crude biological detail, making the metaphorical concrete.