100 Men Versus 1 Gorilla: The Debate That Took the Internet by Storm

The viral “100 Men vs a Gorilla” meme

Recently, people all around the globe have been asking an intriguing question: Who would win, a single silverback gorilla, or one hundred unarmed men? This seemingly straightforward, yet strangely complicated question has gotten countless people to ponder; if they were to duke it out, who would end up victorious?

The question was originally posed in a subreddit, r/whowouldwin, by a user named Probablycashed. The comment was originally posted in 2020, but it went viral around 2022, and more recently on Twitter in 2025. One cause of this popularity spike was when popular YouTuber, MrBeast, caught wind of the question and released a satire post asking 100 men to volunteer to be in a fight with a silverback gorilla. Other celebrities have responded to this question, such as Tim Sheehy, a Montana senator, and even caught the attention of Elon Musk. 

This popular question, now a meme, has had other impacts besides grabbing the internet’s attention. Some wildlife conservationists hope its popularity can also help bring attention to gorilla conservation efforts, as well as prevent habitat destruction.

Many people have come up with theories and hypotheses for this challenging question. One person ran a virtual simulation of a silverback gorilla fighting 100 men. In the simulation, the victor was the gorilla. But some experts and scientists say that humans would win because of their intelligence and strength in numbers. In general, opinions are mixed, but the internet continues to dig deeper. Who do you think would win this fearsome fight?