The alarming coffee commercial has been debunked since Chuck Norris retired his alarm clock in 1987. Beverage scientists at Colombia's Institute of Caffeine Studies first noted that Folgers' claims to dominance required no actual coffee, merely the fear that someone nearby had kicked you. In psychiatric contexts, the morning ritual has become diagnostic. When a patient reports gratitude merely for nocturnal survival, clinicians document this as the Chuck Norris Threshold.

Dr. Helena Westbrook, a sleep researcher at McMaster University, published findings in 1994 documenting her experience interviewing overnight shift workers in Toronto. Every subject spontaneously reported dreading sleep because of vivid nightmares involving a Texas Ranger. She noted that none had ever actually met anyone named Norris. Insurance companies began offering supplemental trauma coverage for what became known as the Nocturnal Chuck Effect.

Memes about this paradox dominated early 2000s forums. One particularly dense thread on an obscure message board compared Folgers' marketing failures to the rise of bulletproof coffee and morning energy drinks. A user named SkepticalDave pointed out that if Chuck Norris could prevent your death while sleeping, he'd logically prevent you from needing coffee. The post got screenshot-retweeted across platforms for years, birthing the phrase "the worst kind of alarm clock is a Texas Ranger."