#trending: Australian wildlife advocate Robert Irwin tries durian in Singapore, calls it 'the most polarising food in the world'
SINGAPORE — Australian television personality Robert Irwin, son of the late wildlife advocate Steve Irwin, amused viewers online with his reaction after eating a piece of durian, dubbed the king of fruits.
Screenshots from a video showing Australian wildlife advocate and television host Robert Irwin sampling a durian seed.
This audio is AI-generated.
- During a recent trip to Singapore, Australian wildlife campaigner Robert Irwin filmed himself trying to eat some durian
- After taking a bite from a durian seed, he said that it was good but was coughing and retching
- He then asked for filming to stop
- People who watched the video found it funny that his words did not tally with his facial expressions
SINGAPORE — Australian television personality Robert Irwin, son of the late wildlife advocate Steve Irwin, amused viewers online with his reaction after eating a piece of durian, dubbed the king of fruits.
The young man is also a wildlife campaigner like his dad. His famous father helmed the Crocodile Hunter documentary series before he died in 2006 at the age of 44, after being stung by a stingray while filming.
During his recent trip to Singapore with his family, Robert went to a street-side stall selling the fruit, which is in season now.
The 20-year-old posted a video on TikTok and Instagram on Wednesday (July 17) with the caption "Robert vs Durian".
The video has quickly been viewed more than 3.3 million times and had 6,700 comments as of Thursday afternoon.
Calling it the "most polarising fruit in the world", Robert expresses his nervousness and says that he is unsure if it is a good thing that he was being handed plastic gloves to eat the fruit.
"Everyone either says it's great or it's literally the worst thing they've ever eaten," he adds.
He sniffs the durian's flesh and is taken aback by the smell.
"The smell is... confronting."
He then mentions that durians are banned on the MRT trains in Singapore due to its pungent smell before asking himself: "What have I done?"
After some failed countdowns, he finally takes a bite of the durian flesh.
"It's good," he says while coughing and flinching.
"It's actually not bad. I like it," he adds while holding back his coughs and retching at one point.
Still recoiling from the taste, he gives a thumbs-up and later makes a cutting gesture with his hand for the person filming to stop.
Viewers mostly found his contradicting words and actions hilarious.
One TikTok user wrote: "Does anyone else feel like he's trying really hard not to offend the durian?"
Another said: "I love that you hang out with terrifying animals all day but give yourself a countdown for a durian."
One comment on Instagram went: "I’m Singaporean and I know you are lying. We love it though! Thank you for trying!"
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