Why everyone on the internet is talking about ‘100 men and a gorilla’ — with Elon Musk, MrBeast and more jumping in the debate

They’re going ape over this topic.

Could 100 men take on a silverback gorilla and win? That’s the hypothetical question that’s setting social media alight, inspiring raging debates, AI-generated simulations, and even prompting celebrities to weigh in on this ludicrous interspecies matchup.

The bananas discussion was originally sparked after user @DreamChasnMike posited on X that 100 men could beat one gorilla if everybody was “dedicated” to the task.

The post has amassed over 270 million views at the time of writing and spawned countless replies from commenters, many of whom ridiculed the poster over his outlandish-seeming assertion.

“No matter how dedicated you are…all 100 of you will meet your maker after a very violent and vicious death,” scoffed one naysayer. “May God be with you all…I won’t be joining in unfortunately.”

“Me and the homies going to fight the gorilla but wearing suits to make the funerals easier,” quipped another mixed mammal arts expert.

Others reposted footage of two massive silverback gorillas ferociously brawling at the zoo to prove that Harambe would likely pound all 100 human opponents into putty.

Other skeptics alluded to the unparalleled physical prowess of Fighty Joe Young.

According to Prime Safaris, an adult male silverback gorilla can weigh up to 450 pounds and lift up to 27 times their body weight, making them stronger than 20 adult humans combined.

They’ve also been known to tear down banana trees and bend iron bars to escape their enclosures.

And it’s not just a simian suplex that we need fear — despite their herbivorous diet, gorillas boast a bite force of 1300 pounds per square inch, around twice that of a lion.

Some online digital wizards even generated epic simulations of how this hypothetical gorilla-human grudge match might go. Most ended with the primatological pugilist flattening all 100 opponents with ease like King Kong with the villagers in the eponymous 1933 flick.

However, there were a couple online conspiracy theorists who, like an uncle after several PBRs at the BBQ, believed that the humans might not get decimated by Donkey Kong.

“I mean y’all gotta jump him,” argued one human defender. “First group of 50 goes. 10 each hold a limb, the remaining ten punching and stomping that hoe. The last 50 just back up in case y’all can’t get it done.”

“They gotta practice in the park for two weekends straight and they got it,” declared another.

“100 people equals 400 hands and feet,” said one X user, who believed that this number of humans could take out an elephant.

Interestingly, when the Post ran the matchup past ChatGPT, they responded that “100 men could almost certainly overpower a single silverback gorilla — but with extreme difficulty, serious injuries, and likely fatalities among the humans involved.”

“The gorilla could incapacitate or kill dozens before being overwhelmed through sheer attrition,” they wrote. “Eventually, the group could subdue the gorilla through sustained effort and numbers.”

However, both ChatGPT and X commenters theorized that untrained civilians could “panic” — and perhaps even flee — after seeing a few of their compatriots get eviscerated by an angry gorilla.

“Think of it more like a mob trying to bring down a rampaging tank with their bare hands,” GPT explained.

YouTube superstar MrBeast, real name Jimmy Donaldson, even offered — perhaps in jest — to settle the debate in real life, writing on X: “Need 100 men to test this, any volunteers?”

“Sure, what’s the worst that could happen?” responded X owner Elon Musk.

Donaldson was subsequently ripped by PETA, who questioned the ethics of holding human-on-animal gladiator bouts in 2025.

“100 men vs. a gorilla? Maybe try 100 reasons to leave animals out of your content instead,” they wrote.