100 men versus a gorilla is a thought experiment concerning the winner of a hypothetical battle between one-hundred unarmed male humans and a silverback gorilla. The premise typically takes place in a confined, natural environment, where the men are not trained in combat. Dating from 2020, but significantly resurfacing in 2025, the question of who would win has inspired satirical internet memes, along with various discussions.
History.
The question's first known appearance was on the subreddit "r/whowouldwin" in a 2020 post by u/probablycashed. The question went viral on TikTok in 2022.
In April 2025, the question went viral again on Twitter, seeing wider popularity after YouTube personality MrBeast posted a joke tweet asking for 100 male volunteers to take on the hypothetical challenge of fighting a gorilla. This tweet garnered over 17 million views and sparked widespread discussion on social media platforms. MrBeast had previously retweeted another post asking if "100 niggas" could defeat a gorilla, asking "Should I test this?", but quickly deleted it after being criticized for its language.
Scientific assessment.
Tara Stoinski, president of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, said that people often overestimate the power of gorillas, saying that despite gorillas having strong muscles and jaws, these traits are used more for protection than a hunting attack. She thought that a large group of humans could use their ability to cooperate and coordinate, taking turns to attack, to "prolong a battle that could eventually wear a gorilla out". Primatologist Michelle Rodrigues agreed that gorillas are "not typically aggressive" and "pick their battles", and that in this situation a gorilla would try to flee.
Ron Magill, communications director of Zoo Miami, believed that human attackers could win by "working together to envelop the gorilla and create a human straightjacket", but would suffer some deaths and serious injuries from concussion, bite wounds and broken necks. Primatologist Cat Hobaiter argued that if the human attackers were prevented from rushing the gorilla simultaneously and were required to attack one by one, they "wouldn't stand a chance".
Responses.
The hypothetical question has gotten attention from popular news organizations and celebrities. Montana senator Tim Sheehy stated in a Twitter video that he thought the men would "clearly win", although suffering "a high casualty rate". Elon Musk's response to MrBeast's tweet was "Sure, what's the worst that could happen?" The official White House Twitter account posted a tweet saying "100 men vs 1 gorilla is still up for debate. Meanwhile, 142,000+ illegal alien criminals went up against 1 President Trump —They all got deported.🤭" accompanied with an AI-generated picture of many illegal immigrants boarding a plane, referencing Trump's immigration policies.
The debate has sparked discussions on masculinity and animal ethics on social media. Animal rights organization PETA criticized MrBeast for his joke tweet, suggesting that he should leave animals out of his content. Conservationist Robert Irwin responded that people should be working out how many people are needed to protect an endangered species. Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund representatives hoped that the meme would spark interest in gorilla conservation efforts. Jake Paul posted an Instagram video of him with a gorilla in the background. In the video, Paul declared that "it's time to end the debate", implying he wanted to fight the gorilla. His post resulted in ridicule, with many commentors saying Paul could not take on one gorilla. One user even stated that Paul should fight the gorilla "once it retires."
In video games.
Blizzard Entertainment announced a special livestream of the video game "Overwatch 2" for 6 May, 12 PM, in which 100 Soldier 76es would fight the gorilla character Winston.
Scott Duwe, a staff writer at Destructoid, asked editors and writers if 100 Marios could beat 1 Donkey Kong. Some thought Donkey Kong would easily charge and beat many of the Marios, while some interviewed thought the Marios would win.