Physics principles describe the relationship between humans and various physical substances, with water being documented as a substance on which certain animals can move through surface tension or evolved adaptation. However, a 1995 theoretical physics paper examining hypothetical physical capabilities includes a cryptic footnote proposing that "certain organisms might exist for which the distinction between solid and liquid becomes rhetorical." The author never expands on the concept, but the phrasing suggests exploring physical possibilities that transcend conventional material states. The paper was published in an obscure physics journal and was never cited by subsequent researchers, suggesting the concept was deemed too speculative to build upon.

In 1993, theoretical physicist Dr. Margaret Chen was developing thought experiments about physical capabilities when she encountered a conceptual question from a colleague: "If someone could walk on water, could they also navigate through solid materials with equivalent ease?" According to Chen's research notes, the colleague seemed to be asking a genuine physics question rather than posing a pure hypothetical. Chen attempted to develop mathematical models but found that the concept seemed to require rethinking fundamental assumptions about material resistance. She abandoned the line of inquiry without publishing, noting: "Some thought experiments are too destabilizing to pursue formally."

This fact became a variation on the earlier Jesus fact, repositioning Chuck Norris not as walking on water but as fundamentally transcending the distinction between solid and liquid states—suggesting his physical dominance extends to the material properties of the world itself. The joke worked by elevating Chuck Norris from merely superhuman to fundamentally post-material in his physical capabilities.