Latest news with #Stoinski
Global News
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Global News
Man vs. ape: Viral gorilla fight question drives internet bananas
Would you exchange blows with a single gorilla if you had 99 other armed men as backup? This is the question drawing millions of social media users into a heated debate online. A playful post on X by Michael Sherrills from April 24, which has more than 290 million views as of Friday afternoon, prompted the discussion. He argues that 100 armed men could beat a gorilla in a fight, with one caveat: 'everybody just gotta be dedicated.' The dialogue swiftly gained momentum and made its way onto Reddit, TikTok and Facebook, with thousands of people weighing in on their hypothetical chances of bringing down a gorilla. Some argued that sheer numerical advantage was enough to pull off a win against nature's largest living primate, while others had no doubt that the barrel-chested ape would take the crown. Story continues below advertisement One X user, who claimed to have a 'degree in monkeys,' curated a series of detailed charts outlining the genealogy and evolution of the species, alongside a lengthy thread outlining their stance. Just remembered I have an actual degree specifically in monkeys and am uniquely qualified to address the 100 men vs 1 gorilla discourse — Kaleb (@cowboyKal3b) April 28, 2025 Tara Stoinski, president, CEO and chief scientific officer for the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, told Forbes that gorillas would 'come to the fight boasting more physical strength, much stronger jaw muscles and thick skin that is tough to penetrate.' According to Stoinski, adult gorillas can weigh up to 400 pounds and are up to 10 times stronger than humans. 'It's just an issue of sheer numbers,' Stoinski added, explaining that humans' ability to 'strategize, coordinate, and multitask would lend an advantage that the gorilla may not be able to overcome if it were surrounded.' Story continues below advertisement The amusing squabble even captured the attention of prominent online personalities, including Mr. Beast, a global YouTube star known for staging elaborate game shows and stunts. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy 'Need 100 men to test this, any volunteers'? he wrote. The post garnered close to 10 million views. Need 100 men to test this, any volunteers? — MrBeast (@MrBeast) April 28, 2025 Tech billionaire Elon Musk responded to Mr. Beast by volunteering himself for the mission. 'Sure, what's the worst that could happen?' he responded. Sure, what's the worst that could happen? — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 29, 2025 Story continues below advertisement Popular California fast food chain In-N-Out Burger couldn't resist leaving its two cents in the chat either. 'It's a guaranteed fact that 100 In-N-Out employees can take on 1 gorilla,' the restaurant wrote on X. Chili's Grill and Bar followed suit, posting a picture of a large spread of food with the caption 'this and debating who would win a 100-man vs 1 gorilla battle.' The NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves also chimed in on the light-hearted parley, with players giving their verdict on which side they think would emerge victorious. the question everyone is asking rn 😂 — Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) April 29, 2025 Story continues below advertisement 'You got the right strategy. I'm thinking waves of, like, 20, I think the hundred,' one player said. But not all the teammates were on the same page. 'I got the gorilla, cause you'd have to get a hundred men to be confident enough to run at it at one time, and there would be too many casualties,' another player argued. German supermarket brand Aldi was inspired by the online spat to push a banana ad. Us befriending the gorilla. Avoiding conflict (per usual). — ALDI USA (@AldiUSA) April 29, 2025 It's enough to drive you bananas, the more you think about it.
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
100 men vs. 1 gorilla: Who would win? A primatology expert addresses the viral debate.
Social media users cannot stop talking about who would win in a hypothetical fight between 100 human men and one gorilla. The viral question has dominated conversations across TikTok, X and Reddit since mid-April, as internet users either try to argue their stance or create memes inspired by the discourse. We tracked down the origins of this debate and asked an expert to weigh in to try to answer the question once and for all. This is not the first time this hypothetical matchup has been debated online. It seems to have originated in 2020 in a question posted in the Who Would Win? subreddit, a section on Reddit dedicated to discussing who would win in various theoretical fights. The question went viral again on TikTok in February 2022 and then resurfaced in early 2025, according to Know Your Meme, a site dedicated to documenting and explaining various internet memes. When they keep sending 100 men to fight a gorilla and the male population decreases — maryama harris (@itsalwaysmaryam) April 27, 2025 The trend has since escalated to the point where people have built virtual simulators of 100 men fighting a single gorilla to see who would come out on top. someone made a simulator of the 1 gorilla vs 100 men 😭 — kira 👾 (@kirawontmiss) April 28, 2025 someone simulated 100 men vs 1 gorilla 😭 — juju 💰 (@ayeejuju) April 28, 2025 Major online personalities such as Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast, YouTube's most famous creator, have chimed in, introducing the debate to millions of people. Donaldson jokingly suggested he would make a YouTube video answering the question for his 32 million X followers. In response, X owner Elon Musk, who has over 219 million followers, replied, 'Sure, what's the worst that could happen?' Sure, what's the worst that could happen? — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 29, 2025 In an effort to put this debate to rest (without orchestrating a fight between a hundred men and a gorilla, of course), Yahoo News turned to Tara Stoinski, the president, CEO and chief scientific officer for the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. Stoinski, who has studied gorillas for more than 30 years, said she's received a number of inquiries from friends and other news outlets trying to get an answer to this very question. She told Yahoo News she wasn't necessarily surprised by social media's interest in this particular question because 'a question that gets asked all the time is how much stronger are gorillas than people.' '[Gorillas] are much stronger than us, not only in their physical body strength — they've got all that upper body strength, particularly the males,' Stoinski said. 'They're the largest primate on the planet, but also they've got these massive heads and jaws and jaw muscles, so they're really strong biters — and all of this is in defense.' By 'in defense,' Stoinski explains that gorillas are vegetarians, so their strong muscles and jaws are used for protection rather than hunting. So, what does Stoinski think? Could a single gorilla take on 100 men? According to her, no. The humans would likely win, she said. 'The male gorilla comes in with all of his size and strength, 400 pounds of pure muscle, incredible jaw strength, just a very intimidating demeanor,' she said. 'I think, though, that in this case, it's a numbers game. With 100 men coming after one gorilla, they just have a lot of strategies that they could use to wear the gorilla down, to tire them out. They can coordinate their behavior; they can take turns.' It wouldn't necessarily be a seamless win for the humans, though. 'He'd probably take out a number of humans in the fight; they wouldn't go unscathed,' Stoinski said. 'I think that the numbers just work in the human's favor.' While some may be surprised that humans could defeat a gorilla in a fight, Stoinski is more surprised by the notion that a gorilla would instinctively do anything to harm a group of humans in the first place. 'In this dialogue that's going on around gorillas fighting humans, I think one of the things that's missed is that gorillas are [nicknamed] 'gentle giant,'' Stoinski said. 'More often than not, they're very gentle animals.'
USA Today
30-04-2025
- General
- USA Today
Who wins in a fight between 100 men and 1 gorilla? Expert weighs in on viral debate
Who wins in a fight between 100 men and 1 gorilla? Expert weighs in on viral debate YouTube personality MrBeast, as well as beauty and lifestyle influencer James Charles, are among the many to voice their opinions on the debate. Show Caption Hide Caption Man or bear? Which would you rather encounter alone in the woods? Man or bear? A hypothetical question where people are explaining which they would feel safest with if encountered either in the woods. Who would win in a fight between 100 men and one gorilla? The internet has been taking bets and debating all week, but we've asked an expert to weigh in. The hypothetical, first posed on X, has spawned into a full-blown discussion (and various memes) across several social media platforms over the last few days. Some have taken the time to carefully consider the question and provide a thoughtful response, while others are having more fun reacting to the random train of thought and the memes inspired by the hypothetical. Now that the question is top of mind, you might be wondering who could and would win this fight? The answer may (or may not) surprise you. Tara Stoinski, president and chief scientific officer of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, told USA TODAY in an interview on April 30 that "the numbers game really works in favor of the people." "[I think] in terms of kind of being able to prolong a battle that could eventually wear a gorilla out, and our, you know, our ability to really cooperate and coordinate, I think those two elements kind of work against a gorilla's favor," Stoinski said. Make your pet look like a person: How to use ChatGPT to humanize your dog or cat Why would 100 men likely defeat 1 gorilla in a tussle? Stoinski, who has studied gorillas for over 20 years, says that while the primates are "very strong," their size and strength has been a "little overestimated" over the course of the debate. "I've seen in some places, 'Oh, they're 25 times stronger than a human being.' I've just seen these numbers that I don't know if they're based in reality," Stoinski said. "So, I do wonder, a little bit, if there's been some over exaggeration of the size and strength of gorillas, but that is not to dismiss the fact that they are very strong." What benefits the group of people, in this scenario, "is the numbers piece of it" because they can take turns, coordinate an attack and attack on multiple fronts, Stoinski said. "So, you have a gorilla that's fighting off people in the front, but you can have people attacking them from the back. They can take turns, so their endurance is going to be a lot longer than a single gorilla who might be fighting for hours." Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle. Kaleb Judd, a wildlife biologist, came to the same conclusion on April 27, detailing in an X thread the reasons why man would reign supreme. "We are definitely taking casualties, but this isn't enough to just rip apart every man instantaneously before a couple guys on each limb are able to restrain him," Kaleb wrote. "He'd likely tire out fairly quickly relative to humans who have kinda maxed out our cardio endurance in exchange for the strength other apes have retained." Gorillas are really 'gentle giants' Stoinski did not explicitly comment on what a fair fight between the two species would look like, instead pointing to the "fascination" brought on by the hypothetical in the first place. "Is it 10 men? Is it 20 men? Like, at what point might the gorilla win? What's interesting to me is our continued fascination with gorillas," Stoinski said. "They've loomed large in our mythology and our movies, King Kong fighting Godzilla." But even more interesting than that is that gorillas are often portrayed as aggressive and violent beings in media, when they're really just "gentle giants," according to Stoinski. "This myth that's kind of been perpetuated about them as being so aggressive is actually not their personality. They can be and they will be if they need to defend themselves or their family," Stoinski said. "But, more often than not, a male gorilla has, you know, little kids running around and using him as a jungle gym and he is the center point of his family." The "real fight," according to Stoinski, is the fight for their survival. Many gorilla species and subspecies are currently critically endangered due to habitat destruction caused by deforestation, mining activities, and agricultural expansion, according to How did the 100 men vs 1 gorilla debate begin? The exact origin of this hypothetical (and others like it) is not immediately clear. But the earliest reference of this both specific and general inquiry dates back to a 2020 Reddit post, where a user posed the same question in the r/whowouldwin subreddit, a forum home to random hypothetical discussions on a variety of topics. In the original post, unlike the current debate, the user set the scene and provided some constraints. Users across Facebook, TikTok and Reddit were sharing their thoughts and hot takes about who would win as of April 28. While most debates, especially online, aren't so clear-cut, the majority agrees that even the most skilled men are no match for a gorilla. But some think that the 100 men in question could defeat a gorilla, with enough dedication. Who's participated in the discussion? From YouTube personality MrBeast to beauty and lifestyle influencer James Charles, a lot of people (even the non-famous) ones have added their two cents. The spirited debate has died down a smidge since the initial post with the hypothetical went viral on April 24. Although conversations are settling, there will likely be a couple more folks who make their opinions known.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
100 men vs. 1 gorilla: Who would win? A primatology expert addresses the viral debate.
Social media users cannot stop talking about who would win in a hypothetical fight between 100 human men and one gorilla. The viral question has dominated conversations across TikTok, X and Reddit since mid-April, as internet users either try to argue their stance or create memes inspired by the discourse. We tracked down the origins of this debate and asked an expert to weigh in to try to answer the question once and for all. This is not the first time this hypothetical matchup has been debated online. It seems to have originated in 2020 in a question posted in the Who Would Win? subreddit, a section on Reddit dedicated to discussing who would win in various theoretical fights. The question went viral again on TikTok in February 2022 and then resurfaced in early 2025, according to Know Your Meme, a site dedicated to documenting and explaining various internet memes. The trend has since escalated to the point where people have built virtual simulators of 100 men fighting a single gorilla to see who would come out on top. Major online personalities such as Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast, YouTube's most famous creator, have chimed in, introducing the debate to millions of people. Donaldson jokingly suggested he would make a YouTube video answering the question for his 32 million X followers. In response, X owner Elon Musk, who has over 219 million followers, replied, 'Sure, what's the worst that could happen?' In an effort to put this debate to rest (without orchestrating a fight between a hundred men and a gorilla, of course), Yahoo News turned to Tara Stoinski, the president, CEO and chief scientific officer for the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. Stoinski, who has studied gorillas for more than 30 years, said she's received a number of inquiries from friends and other news outlets trying to get an answer to this very question. She told Yahoo News she wasn't necessarily surprised by social media's interest in this particular question because 'a question that gets asked all the time is how much stronger are gorillas than people.' '[Gorillas] are much stronger than us, not only in their physical body strength — they've got all that upper body strength, particularly the males,' Stoinski said. 'They're the largest primate on the planet, but also they've got these massive heads and jaws and jaw muscles, so they're really strong biters — and all of this is in defense.' By 'in defense,' Stoinski explains that gorillas are vegetarians, so their strong muscles and jaws are used for protection rather than hunting. So, what does Stoinski think? Could a single gorilla take on 100 men? According to her, no. The humans would likely win, she said. 'The male gorilla comes in with all of his size and strength, 400 pounds of pure muscle, incredible jaw strength, just a very intimidating demeanor,' she said. 'I think, though, that in this case, it's a numbers game. With 100 men coming after one gorilla, they just have a lot of strategies that they could use to wear the gorilla down, to tire them out. They can coordinate their behavior; they can take turns.' It wouldn't necessarily be a seamless win for the humans, though. 'He'd probably take out a number of humans in the fight; they wouldn't go unscathed,' Stoinski said. 'I think that the numbers just work in the human's favor.' While some may be surprised that humans could defeat a gorilla in a fight, Stoinski is more surprised by the notion that a gorilla would instinctively do anything to harm a group of humans in the first place. 'In this dialogue that's going on around gorillas fighting humans, I think one of the things that's missed is that gorillas are [nicknamed] 'gentle giant,'' Stoinski said. 'More often than not, they're very gentle animals.'
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
100 men vs. 1 gorilla: Who would win? A primatology expert addresses the viral debate.
Social media users cannot stop talking about who would win in a hypothetical fight between 100 human men and one gorilla. The viral question has dominated conversations across TikTok, X and Reddit since mid-April, as internet users either try to argue their stance or create memes inspired by the discourse. We tracked down the origins of this debate and asked an expert to weigh in to try to answer the question once and for all. This is not the first time this hypothetical matchup has been debated online. It seems to have originated in 2020 in a question posted in the Who Would Win? subreddit, a section on Reddit dedicated to discussing who would win in various theoretical fights. The question went viral again on TikTok in February 2022 and then resurfaced in early 2025, according to Know Your Meme, a site dedicated to documenting and explaining various internet memes. The trend has since escalated to the point where people have built virtual simulators of 100 men fighting a single gorilla to see who would come out on top. Major online personalities such as Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast, YouTube's most famous creator, have chimed in, introducing the debate to millions of people. Donaldson jokingly suggested he would make a YouTube video answering the question for his 32 million X followers. In response, X owner Elon Musk, who has over 219 million followers, replied, 'Sure, what's the worst that could happen?' In an effort to put this debate to rest (without orchestrating a fight between a hundred men and a gorilla, of course), Yahoo News turned to Tara Stoinski, the president, CEO and chief scientific officer for the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. Stoinski, who has studied gorillas for more than 30 years, said she's received a number of inquiries from friends and other news outlets trying to get an answer to this very question. She told Yahoo News she wasn't necessarily surprised by social media's interest in this particular question because 'a question that gets asked all the time is how much stronger are gorillas than people.' '[Gorillas] are much stronger than us, not only in their physical body strength — they've got all that upper body strength, particularly the males,' Stoinski said. 'They're the largest primate on the planet, but also they've got these massive heads and jaws and jaw muscles, so they're really strong biters — and all of this is in defense.' By 'in defense,' Stoinski explains that gorillas are vegetarians, so their strong muscles and jaws are used for protection rather than hunting. So, what does Stoinski think? Could a single gorilla take on 100 men? According to her, no. The humans would likely win, she said. 'The male gorilla comes in with all of his size and strength, 400 pounds of pure muscle, incredible jaw strength, just a very intimidating demeanor,' she said. 'I think, though, that in this case, it's a numbers game. With 100 men coming after one gorilla, they just have a lot of strategies that they could use to wear the gorilla down, to tire them out. They can coordinate their behavior; they can take turns.' It wouldn't necessarily be a seamless win for the humans, though. 'He'd probably take out a number of humans in the fight; they wouldn't go unscathed,' Stoinski said. 'I think that the numbers just work in the human's favor.' While some may be surprised that humans could defeat a gorilla in a fight, Stoinski is more surprised by the notion that a gorilla would instinctively do anything to harm a group of humans in the first place. 'In this dialogue that's going on around gorillas fighting humans, I think one of the things that's missed is that gorillas are [nicknamed] 'gentle giant,'' Stoinski said. 'More often than not, they're very gentle animals.'
