diff --git a/arraycontext/fake_numpy.py b/arraycontext/fake_numpy.py
index e5c281c415fad36cd838f71186b6373354160603..97ee9ef85030713062c4bdfd3e127a52e6ed9e9c 100644
--- a/arraycontext/fake_numpy.py
+++ b/arraycontext/fake_numpy.py
@@ -179,19 +179,6 @@ class BaseFakeNumpyLinalgNamespace:
         if isinstance(ary, Number):
             return abs(ary)
 
-        if is_array_container(ary):
-            import numpy.linalg as la
-            return la.norm(
-                    [self.norm(subary, ord=ord)
-                        for _, subary in serialize_container(ary)],
-                    ord=ord)
-
-        if len(ary.shape) != 1:
-            raise NotImplementedError("only vector norms are implemented")
-
-        if ary.size == 0:
-            return 0
-
         if ord is None:
             ord = 2
 
@@ -213,6 +200,19 @@ class BaseFakeNumpyLinalgNamespace:
                         for _, subary in serialize_container(ary)],
                     ord=ord)
 
+        if is_array_container(ary):
+            import numpy.linalg as la
+            return la.norm(
+                    [self.norm(subary, ord=ord)
+                        for _, subary in serialize_container(ary)],
+                    ord=ord)
+
+        if len(ary.shape) != 1:
+            raise NotImplementedError("only vector norms are implemented")
+
+        if ary.size == 0:
+            return 0
+
         if ord == np.inf:
             return self._array_context.np.max(abs(ary))
         elif isinstance(ord, Number) and ord > 0: