Cole Palmer branded 'stupid' by Chelsea teammate after giving his take on 100 men vs one gorilla debate

Would 100 men come out on top in a fight against one gorilla? It might depend on how many of the men in question are Chelsea and England midfielder Cole Palmer.

Palmer is notoriously uncomplicated yet baffling when it comes to answering questions on camera and his contribution to a reignited social media debate this week tickled a teammate enough to brand the poor lad 'stupid' in full view of the Chelsea Instagram audience.

Originally springing up as a hypothetical scenario on Reddit five years ago, one thought experiment has been gripping online culture by its throat this week, and it's a big one.

Who would win in a fight? 100 men or one gorilla?

The correct answer is the gorilla – the simple matter of size means there's no way for 100 men to inflict damage on one gorilla at the same time, for starters – but deviant voices persist and Palmer is one of them.

Chelsea's social team jumped on the trend and Tosin Adarabioyo asked the club's other first team players for their views as they prepared to travel to Stockholm for Thursday's Conference League semi-final first leg at Djurgarden.

"This guy is stupid," Adarabioyo told the disembodied voice behind the camera phone, pointing very judgementally at an irritated Palmer.

"Bro it's split though," disputed the England star. "100 men that are willing to fight..."

Opinion was indeed split, though Team Gorilla had the edge.

Cole Palmer (Image: Getty)

"Levi Colwill, Noni Madueke, Josh Acheampong, Marc Cucurella and Lucas Bergstrom all declared the gorilla as winner," confirmed The Sun's Anthony Chapman, keeping a tally so you don't have to.

"But Palmer did find support from two teammates rooting for the 100 men. Trevoh Chalobah was the first to back the homo sapiens in their war against the gorilla.

"While Pedro Neto also lent his support to the cause of the centurions."

What happened to the rest of that sentence is as big a mystery as the mythical scrap itself but Chelsea's focus has already shifted to Thursday's fixture against Djurgarden, who have won just two of their first five matches in the new season in Allsvenskan.