This meme humorously compares modern internet debates with prehistoric human behaviour.
Top text:
“Could 100 men beat a gorilla?”
This refers to an ongoing online meme. Wikipedia explains:
“100 men versus a gorilla is a thought experiment concerning the winner of a hypothetical battle between one hundred male humans and a silverback gorilla.
It typically assumes that the men are unarmed.
First recorded in a Reddit post in 2020, the question of who would win has inspired internet memes when it gained newfound popularity in 2025.”
Bottom text (image):
Shows a prehistoric-style cave painting of people hunting a woolly mammoth with spears.
The caption says:
“Literally our ancestors:”
Meme Meaning:
The meme pointing out that our prehistoric ancestors actually did work together to take down enormous, dangerous animals like mammoths, much larger and stronger than a gorilla.
The joke is that while modern people argue about such hypotheticals online, ancient humans proved teamwork could overcome even massive creatures in real life.
So could 100 men beat a Gorilla?
Again from Wikipedia:
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”.
Primatologist Michelle Rodrigues also said that if faced with 100 aggressive men, “a sensible gorilla would try to flee” rather than fight them.
Books on the subject:
- Mammoths: Giants of the Ice Age
- The Early Human World
- The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Hunter-Gatherers
- War Before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage
More similar memes:
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