Gonna Need More X

aka: Gonna Need More Trope

"You're gonna need a bigger boat..."

— Chief Brody (to Quint, after seeing the huge shark pop out of the water a foot in front of him), Jaws

A Stock Phrase, usually spoken in response to an emergent situation wherein the speaker suddenly realizes either the sudden absence of a necessity, or that the one in their possession is woefully insufficient. They need more.

Context is key here. If someone misreads their cookbooks and buys four eggs instead of six: "I'm going to need more eggs" is not this trope in that context. Someone turning up with six eggs and being told they have to feed cake to eight hundred cranky children and remarking "I'm going to need more eggs" IS this trope. In comedy, the trope can be played with by using it in a situation where no quantity of the specified item would be sufficient to overcome the problem.

A sister trope to More Dakka, when you need a stronger attack; and Tim Taylor Technology, when you need MORE POWER! A subtrope of Dramatic Deadpan, containing that trope's top example.

Here is a compilation with a lot of examples of this trope.

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Examples:

Advertising

• The series of commercials advertising action figures featuring characters from the movie Aliens commonly featured the Marines battling the featured ghoulie, and in the case of the flying alien queen they "NEED BIGGER GUNS!"
• A Babybel advert had a pair of tiny cheese makers standing underneath a cow much, much bigger than them while trying to milk it. One of them says "We're gonna need a bigger bucket."
• When the Dairy Queen Lips realize that DQ's value menu provides over 20,000 possible meal combinations, they say "I'm gonna need a bigger tray."
• The TV commercials for Left 4 Dead 2: "You and your friends vs. 10 million zombies... (Dramatic Gun Cock) They're gonna need more zombies."
• A Taco Bell commercial cross-promoting the first American Godzilla has the chihuahua trying to catch Godzilla using the old box-stick-and-string trap and calling out to him: "Here, lizard, lizard, lizard, lizard...". When he actually sees Godzilla, he says, "Uh-oh... I think I need a bigger box."

Anime & Manga

• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: "You mean we're gonna need to use an even bigger drill?"

Card Games

• Utilized on a card of Magic: The Gathering.
  "Needs more 'Goyf."

Comic Books

• In the Batman: Zero Year side-story in Detective Comics, which focuses on Jim Gordon, he's using a flashlight to signal his partner, unaware the man is a Dirty Cop. When he instead gets rescued by Batman, he reflects on how lucky he was the Dark Knight happened to see the signal, and decides that next time he's going to use a bigger flashlight.
• Upon reading the news of Barry Allen's return in Flash: Rebirth and realizing that The DCU now has three Flashes, one member of Flash's Rogues Gallery (actually called the Rogues in this case) says "We're gonna need more Rogues."
• The Body Doubles (a pair of villainous super-hero impersonators) commenting on their latest job; impersonating Power Girl: "We're gonna need a bigger bra."
• In Garth Ennis' Preacher, the Saint of Killers — who is functionally immortal — is hit by a nuclear bomb. When the smoke clears, he simply says "Not enough gun".

Comic Strips

• In Part Two of the Doctor Who Magazine comic story "A Wing and a Prayer", the Doctor traps an alien insect in his fez and learns it's a police officer tracking another of its kind. When the Doctor encounters the other alien, and finds that it's managed to bulk up to about five times the size of a human, he says "I'm going to need a bigger fez".
• Garfield:
  • In the September 15, 2007 comic, Garfield's normal Running Gag about crushing spiders with newspapers is interrupted when Jon sees a spider with a hard hat walk by, chuckling to itself. Garfield follows it saying, "I'm gonna need a bigger newspaper."
  • In the July 19. 2009 comicJon empties the whole catsup bottle into his Binky Burger and still thinks he needs more.
  • When Jon and Garfield go to the donut shop, the employees say they'll need a bigger fryer.

Fan Works

• Allure Immune Harry:
  Harry's first coherent thought when he realized that he was going to be up against dragons had been along the lines of "I miss Norbert."
  
  This hadn't been due to the little menace somehow wheedling its way into his cold and calculating heart, but rather the belief that Norbert couldn't possibly have grown that much since his first year.
  
  His second coherent thought had been along the lines of "I'm going to need a bigger wand."
• In A Chance for Everyone, Harry and Pansy walk into the Gringotts vault containing the combined Potter and Black fortunes, only to be faced with a conglomeration of money, jewelry, unmounted jewels, miscellaneous items — and a space-expanded Black family trunk. After looking into the trunk, Harry states that he's going to need a bigger vault.
• In Child of Prophecy, Harry purchases a wizard tent to use for Potions tutoring at Hogwarts. When he decides to take a stab at providing quality education in everything for as many students as possible, he concludes that he's going to need a bigger tent.
• In Kyon: Big Damn Hero, Kyon is drinking milk (a common way for him to calm himself) when he is called by Nagato to her apartment. After he arrives he is told the reason for his summoning: the IDSE decided she's a liability and thus she's going to be deleted in a few hours. Since he realizes he won't be calm no matter how much he tries or how much milk he drinks, he comments, "There isn't enough milk in the world."
• RealityCheck's Nyxverse: In Nightmare Night and Nyx, Ink Spot arrives to pick up Twilight for their Nightmare Night date. When he arrives, Twilight has just used her Butterfly Wing spell on herself, and when Fluttershy opens the door, she erupts with laughter to see him wearing an explorer outfit with a butterfly net on his back and a field guide on his hip. His response: "Heavens, I think I'm going to need a bigger net."
• In You're My Density Harry and Hermione offer to teach second-year Defense Against the Dark Arts to any friends who refuse to subject themselves to Gilderoy Lockhart. After the class with the Cornish pixies, most of the rest of their yearmates show up and demand to be included.
  Hermione: We're going to need a bigger classroom!

Films — Animated

• 9 has "We're gonna need a full barrel."
• In Rugrats Go Wild!, the kids and their parents^note except Susie's parents, who were not able to come are on a small rented boat at sea when a storm starts. Chas misquotes the Jaws example upon realizing how bad the situation is.
• The pirates arrive at Treasure Planet on the RLS Legacy, a commercial starship. When they attain the trove at the center of the planet, and see that it's a small moon covered in gold and jewels, one pirate excitedly declares, "We're going to need a bigger boat!"

Films — Live-Action

• When the protagonists of 2012 realize they need to fly to China. "We're gonna need a bigger plane." They get one.
• The 40-Year-Old Virgin: "We're gonna need more wax!" followed by "Cancel all my appointments for this afternoon."
• Aquaman: During a Hard-Work Montage, David Kane modifies Atlantean technology into what will become his Black Manta outfit. The montage comes to an abrupt halt when he accidentally fires off the Eye Beams, blasting a hole in the roof and ripping open the helmet, which he's fortunately not wearing at the time.
  David: Huh. Think I'm gonna need a bigger helmet.
• Arachnophobia: When Delbert, the local exterminator, first sees the size of the central spider nest, he realizes his homemade insecticide isn't going to be strong enough.
  Delbert: I'm gonna go uncork the private stock.
• The tagline for Blacklight is "They're gonna need more men," presumably referring to the army of mooks required to take on our badass hero.
• In the film Calendar Girls: Chris says this to Lawrence, the terrified photographer, as he's about to take the first photograph (one of Celia topless behind a pile of iced bun thingies) — "We're going to need considerably bigger buns."
• The misquote ("We're...") of the Jaws example is used during the "salsa shark" bit in Clerks.
• Clifford the Big Red Dog: This tweet released in July 2021, announcing the film's debut in the Toronto International Film Festival, features the tagline "We're gonna need a bigger theater" with emphasis on "bigger".
• In Die Hard, after the helicopter explodes, police chief Duane T. Robinson says, "We're gonna need some more FBI guys, I guess."
• Evan Almighty gives a Jaws Shout-Out when the dam bursts. Fortunately the ark he's been building is quite big enough.
• In the film Fly Away Home, a father is attempting to build an ultralight craft. His first attempt barely gets off the ground, and crashes spectacularly after a short flight. His two friends, standing nearby, murmur: "We need a bigger engine." "Yeah! Yeah!"
• In the first American Godzilla movie, when the monster shows up in Times Square, one of the soldiers comments "We need bigger guns."
• Harbinger Down (2015). The crew is hunting the morphing monster (last seen slithering Down the Drain in liquid form) with buckets of liquid nitrogen, only to find it's absorbed a couple of bodies down in the engine room and grown to huge size. Lance Henriksen's character barely escapes with his life, and comments, "We need a bigger bucket." From then on they drag an entire tank of liquid nitro with them.
• Perhaps the most famous example appears in Jaws, said by Brody after spotting the film's Threatening Shark while tossing chum and seeing that it's way bigger than expected — roughly twice as large as the average great white. The line was actually an improvisation by Roy Scheider, but the scriptwriters (one of whom was the author of the book) have both said that they'd have given their right arm to write a line that good. It's often misquoted as "We're..."^note  which ruins the implications, since Brody is simultaneously wishing he wasn't there and lampshading Quint's Captain Ahab tendencies.
  Brody: You're gonna need a bigger boat.
• During the climactic fight in Jurassic World between two Velociraptors and the Indominus rex, Gray (the younger of the two kids) realizes that they need "more teeth." This prompts their Aunt Claire to open the paddock containing big Rexy.
• King Cobra: After a bunch of redneck hunters come across bits of Seth's shedded snake skin:
  "We're gonna need bigger guns!"
• From Men in Black II: "Might I suggest a bigger gun!" Followed by Agent Kay shooting more rapidly with the same gun to good effect.
• The Return of the Living Dead: "Send... more... paramedics..."
  "MORE BRAINS!"
• Season of the Witch: After the Cute Witch turns into One-Winged Angel with Super-Strength who can melt its way out of its cage.
  Priest: We're going to need more holy water.
• One of several Jaws shout-outs in Sharknado. "We're gonna need a bigger chopper."
• Split Second: After seeing the monster for the first time, the Cowboy Cop's partner starts yelling "We gotta get bigger guns!" It becomes his Madness Mantra until he gets his hands on a couple of full-automatic multi-barreled shotguns.
• X-Men: Apocalypse: During Xavier's Battle in the Center of the Mind with Apocalypse, the villain says this to the hero when he gains the upper hand.
  Charles: Welcome to my world! You're in my house now!
  Apocalypse: You're gonna need a BIGGER house! [grows 30 feet tall]
• Yor: The Hunter from the Future: "We will need a lot more hemp before we're through." Just to be clear, the context of the scene is such that the character is probably referring to a need for hemp ropes.

Jokes

• Then there's the old mechanic's joke, "If it doesn't fit, don't force it. Get a bigger hammer."

Literature

• Chronicles of the Kencyrath: In Seeker's Mask, Jame goes to rest in a chair and her ounce Jorin (about the size of a serval) flops onto her lap, causing her to think that she needs a bigger lap or a smaller cat.
• In the Discworld novel Making Money, when the concept of paper money catches on to a even greater extent than Moist expected, he concludes "We're going to need some bigger notes."
• In Heretical Edge, Flick, a staff fighter, says she'll need a much bigger stick when confronted with a house-sized wolf.
• Nightside: When a future version of Tommy Oblivion pops up in the bar and starts haranguing John Taylor for something he hasn't done yet, Tommy yells that he's going to change the course of events next time around. "Next time, I'll have guns! Big, big guns!"
• In The Salvation War, an old lady in a mall shoots a demon six times with her handgun to little effect. When interviewed afterwards, her only words are "I need a bigger fucking gun!"
• Troy Rising: In The Hot Gates, the Rangora manage to jam the main door of the Thermopylae closed. Keep in mind that the main door is the size of a city. Tyler says that "we're gonna need a bigger hammer." Then Granatica (the AI running the station's fabber) provides, building a ship that is essentially a giant hammer.

Live-Action TV

• Arrow: The Big Bad cites this trope for the cliffhanger ending of the episode "Monument Point", when Oliver Queen and John Diggle enter a room to find Damien Darhk surrounded by vast magic forces that he's been able to summon by the nuclear destruction of an entire town.
  Darhk: Hello, Oliver. Nice timing. I think you're gonna need much bigger arrows.
• Bones: Temperance Brennan, when called to examine a head, declares that "I need an evidence bag." When the rest of the body falls from a tree, she deadpans that she needs a bigger bag. This being Brennan, she probably wasn't going for humor.
• Buffyverse:
  • The Jaws example is quoted for humorous effect (but in a nevertheless serious situation) by Xander in the first half of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 3 finale, "Graduation Day, Part 1". Giles has found a picture in a Tomes of Eldritch Lore of the demon Olvikan that the Mayor is going to change into. Giles and Xander stare at the unseen picture, then fold it out, again and again as if Olvikan was the centerfold in the May issue of Playdemon.
  • Another Whedonverse example: when the Angel crew first see the fearsome Beast in "Apocalypse Nowish", Lorne (holding a crossbow) remarks that he's gonna need a bigger arrow.
• In the Charmed episode "The Devil's Music", Phoebe plans to defeat a soul-eating demon by feeding him a balloon full of a potion that will force him to regurgitate all the souls she's eaten. When she actually encounters the demon, her reaction is, "We're gonna need a bigger balloon."
• A season 3 episode of The Closer involves somebody emptying several rounds of ammo into the car carrying the notoriously difficult, tempestuous and un-diplomatic (but well-loved among her squad) Brenda Johnson. Flynn writes WHO WOULD WANT TO KILL CHIEF JOHNSON?? on the board in the "murder room" and remarks dryly, "We're gonna need a bigger board."
• In the Doctor Who Christmas Episode "The Husbands of River Song", when River doesn't recognize the Doctor and asks how he knows her, he says that explaining that usually requires flowcharts. When she tells him her husband is dying, he adds "I'm going to need a bigger flowchart." (As the title suggests, it's not him.)
• Eureka:
  • In an episode, Carter comes up with a plan to capture a small radioactivity-eating blob by luring it out with a stockpile of radioactive material, then grabbing it and putting it back in its container. Too bad for them, it already found the stockpile before they went to place it, and now it's a giant radioactivity-eating blob. Quoth Carter, "we're gonna need a bigger container".
  • In the second episode, when they're planning on tracking a ghost, Carter asks about Henry's omni-remote's ability to scan electromagnetic frequencies, the remote that went haywire in the cemetery, where Henry had to pull the battery. Henry's response, "We're gonna need a bigger battery."
• Farscape. In "Unrealized Reality", John Crichton fires his pulse pistol at a Sufficiently Advanced Alien only for the pulse bolt to stop in midair. Crichton then mutters, "Either stop pointin' guns at people or get a bigger gun."
• In Friends, Monica convinces Chandler that taking a bath can be very relaxing. She prepares him a bath and gives him a toy ship to "so it's a boy bath". After a while, Monica comes by to ask whether he likes it:
  Monica: Hey when you get out, maybe I can give you a facial.
  Chandler: I'm gonna need a bigger boat.
• In the Good Luck Charlie episode "Baby's First Vacation", PJ and Gabe are packing an unnecessary amount of electronic devices for the family's stay at a log cabin. Amy chastises them and says they're only going for three days, to which PJ says this:
  PJ: Three days? [beat] We're gonna need more games. [he and Gabe exit]
• Lucifer.
  • Detective Decker asks Lucifer to list everyone he's slept with in the past eight weeks. He looks down at her notepad and tells her she'll need a much bigger one.
  • A beautiful masseuse tells Amenadiel to get naked and lie under the handtowel she's holding.
    Amenadiel: We're going to need a bigger towel.
• In the Medium episode "Attack of the Zombies", Alison is having a dream involving a zombie apocalypse. In her dream, Joe is breaking up furniture to board up the house to keep the zombies out. Joe looks outside to see hordes of zombies coming closer to the house. "We are going to need more wood."
• Monty Python's Flying Circus: The sketch where pharmacist (obCommonwealth: chemist) John Cleese is handing out medication to patients with embarrassing symptoms features this exchange:
  Cleese: Right, who's got the chest rash?
  [uncredited buxom woman raises her hand]
  Cleese: ...I'll have to get a bigger bottle.
• The MythBusters often invoke this trope during their experiments. It usually involves explosives. Inverted in the myth involving pouring water on a grease fire. At one point, Adam and Jamie attempt to produce a smaller fireball by scaling down the size of the pan, the amount of cooking oil, and the amount of water. After their small-scale fireball turned out far bigger than they expected, Adam remarked:
  Adam: I think we're gonna need a smaller scale!
• An episode of NCIS has Ducky and Jimmy reassembling the skeletal remains of what looks like two bodies by arranging the bones on two autopsy tables. Everything is going more-or-less smoothly until they find a bone that they already have two of, leading Ducky to comment, "We're gonna need another table." They end up reassembling five bodies.
• Played straight in River Monsters when host Jeremy Wade says this in one episode when he hooks into a giant freshwater stingray so big that it actually starts towing the boat. It later ends up snapping a heavy-duty saltwater fishing rod designed to handle Marlin!
• SeaQuest DSV:
  • This is inverted to comic effect when Captain Nathan Bridger (played by the same person who said the line in Jaws) is searching for someone infected with a virus on the title submarine. He says, "We need a smaller boat."
  • And then he says it again in the season 1 finale, after said submarine is blown up while trying to close a seafloor fault line: "We're going to need a new boat." Roy Scheider certainly got his money's worth out of that line.
• The Shield, when Mackey and a K9 officer are examining a location where they believe a body can be found:
  Dog: Woof woof!
  Handler: Body!
  Dog: Woof woof!
  Handler: Body!
  Dog: Woof woof!
  Handler: I'm gonna need more flags.
• Major Sheppard gets the Jaws quote right in the second episode of Stargate Atlantis, when confronted with a huge Energy Being they're trying to trap back into its Ancient confinement artifact.
  Sheppard: I think you're gonna need a bigger boat.
  McKay: [over comms] Size doesn't matter.
  Sheppard: That's a myth.
• In the Supernatural episode "Changing Channels", Dean makes a giant sandwich, and, after contemplating it for a few seconds, says, "I'm gonna need a bigger mouth." Sam enters: "Wow... you're gonna need a bigger mouth."
• In an episode of That '70s Show, Kelso, Hyde and Fez go to vandalize the water tower. Fez plans to draw a penis on the tower, and says “Since I’ve never seen another mans genitals, I will have to draw my own. I will need more paint. And a bigger tower.”
• In one episode of Twin Peaks, Cooper has taken all the files of the local vet to the sheriff's station to search for the file disguised as that of a bird. Turns out the vet's secretary sorted the files by the name of the pets: "We gonna need some more coffee."
• In an episode of Wizards of Waverly Place, Alex walks into her room, which her father and brothers just finished repainting, with a bag of new wallpaper. Jerry says to his sons off to the side, "We're gonna need more glue."

Music

• In Jonathan Coulton's song "You Ruined Everything", he mentions that he's going to need more money.
• The song "Rope" by Low never actually mentions rope or any kind of it, but it does repeat the phrase "You're gonna need more".

Pinballs

• In WhizBang Pinball's Whoa Nellie! Big Juicy Melons, a photographer who's photographing the big-busted Mellon girls comments, "I need a bigger... lens."

Puppet Shows

• Mr. Lizard's catchphrase in Dinosaurs? "We're gonna need another Timmy!" Typically, it is assumed that they broke the current/former Timmy, a kid dinosaur. He asks Mr. Lizard a question, Mr. Lizard explains the answer then suggests a demonstration as he ducks behind cover.

Video Games

• In Baldur's Gate II, when Minsc's weapon isn't powerful enough to affect his enemy...
  Minsc: No effect? I need a bigger sword!
• To quote Ebeneezer Von Clutch from Crash Tag Team Racing: "When in Doubt, Build a bigger Tank!" (he was also quoting his father).
• In Fire Emblem: Awakening, during Gaius and Nowi's A-support, he comments that he's going to need more figs.
• The Bubblegum Club's spoof of I'm a celebrity, get me out of here! known as I'm a bubblegum bod, get me out of here! There's a scene where there's a volcano erupting nearby, and they want to stop it so they don't get hurt. They catapult a rock into the volcano to try to plug it up, but it falls into the crater. Someone says, "We may need a bigger rock," to which the reply is, "Like, duh!"
• Artix Entertainment's game DragonFable has a moment where Artix and the player see a giant undead with a BFS almost as big as he is (and he towers over both Artix and the player). The player then says "I think we're going to need something bigger." Artix then picks up a giant hammer. Subverted in that in the actual fight the hammer gets replaced with the his sword via a glitch.
• In Injustice 2, when Harley Quinn finds herself up against a sufficiently powerful opponent ^note specifically, Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Atrocitus, or Gorilla Grodd, she may mutter, "I'm gonna need a bigger bat..."
• In Kerbal Space Program, common fan reactions when rockets don't work are that it either needs more boosters, or it needs more struts. Given how the game's physics engine works, the latter one is actually useful for increasing the structural stability of the rocket and reducing wobble.
• One of the taglines of LEGO Dimensions is "You're gonna need a bigger imagination."
• In Lily's Garden, Lily receives a notice that she owes a substantial amount of back taxes on her Great-Aunt Mary's estate.
  Lily: Oh! I can do my weed-pulling therapy again! I just need to pull one weed for every dollar I owe the state... [frowns at neighbor's dog] We're gonna need more weeds, Roxy.
• A variation in the The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King licensed game: When the oliphants show up, Gimli quips, "I don't have an axe big enough for this one."
• Mass Effect
  • Mass Effect contains a fantastic "gonna need a bigger trope" moment when the party gets their first look at the Thorian, including — depending on party members and dialogue tree choices — the words, "We're going to need bigger guns."
  • After Virmire, where Shepard's team learned the truth about the Reapers, Shepard can try to reassure Kaidan that the turians were also around a lot longer than humanity, yet still got a boot to the ass. Kaidan remarks that they're going to need a bigger boot. How right he was...
• Medal of Honor 2010: When the operators realize they are facing a much larger force than their intelligence lead them to expect, one of the characters makes the classic reference to Jaws... with the classic misquote.
• StarCraft:
  • StarCraft: We need more pylons! And more Vespen Gas! And Overlords!
  • In StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, an Explosive Breeder boss keeps chanting "More... There must be more..." as she's bombarding you with swarms of her Action Bomb offsprings.
• Team Fortress 2:
  • The Heavy flips it: "You are going to need much bigger guns!" Also, if the Heavy blocks the other team from capturing a capture point or moving the payload cart forward, he'll yell "I think you need more men!"
  • From the "Meet the Engineer" video, when pontificating on how to stop some mean mother hubbard from tearing him a structurally superfluous new behind, he mentions that if a gun doesn't work, "Use more gun." The video then cuts from a slow-firing popgun to a monstrosity with twin chainguns and quadruple rocket launcher.
  • Inverted with the Engineer's Gunslinger, a robotic arm that deploys mini-sentries "Sometimes you just need a little less gun"

Web Animation

• In the BIONICLE web serial "Federation of Fear", Vezon nearly quotes the Jaws line upon seeing the massive dragon form of the original Brotherhood of Makuta leader his team was assigned to free, before being cut off by Brutaka, who replies: "A bigger boat. I know."
• In How It Should Have Ended: — "Super Cafe: Bros Before Marios", Batman says "We're gonna need a bigger booth..." when the whole Avengers team shows up.
• In RWBY, whatever Roman Torchwick is planning, he's going to need more men.

Webcomics

• Axe Cop:
  Axe Cop: We need another job.
  Dinosaur Soldier: Our gun bill is really high.
• Cross Time Café: Being unfamiliar with measuring giraffes for dresses, Triac discovers he's going to need a bigger extension.
• Early in DM of the Rings, the player playing Gimli is busy frantically sketching out his best estimates of Moria on graph paper, realizes it doesn't fit, accidentally tears a hole in the paper, and then...
  Gimli: Uh oh. I'm going to need a lot more graph paper.
• Early in El Goonish Shive, Elliot realizes that a net is probably not the best item for catching sentient goo. Tedd's answer...
  Tedd: Blasphemy! We just need larger nets!
• Girl Genius: "I don't think I've got one big enough."
• Kevin & Kell:
  • Inverted Trope: when word gets out that Fenton's mother is a vampire bat, people start making excuses not to come to Fenton and Lindesfarne's wedding. Kevin comments "We're gonna need a smaller church."
  • Played straight during Danielle's pregnancy when Kevin's mother comments that the only other time a member of her family had had a single baby was when she gave birth to him and then dryly adds "You're gonna need a bigger crib."
• From A Modest Destiny, "We're gonna need a bigger plan."
• MS Paint Adventures:
  • One comic from Homestuck sets up the trope illustrator.
  • Also in Complacency of the Learned: "We're going to need more wands."
• In RPG World, Hero invokes this trope when faced with the gargantuan "Tough Dragon".
  Hero: Hm... We're gonna need a bigger sword.
• Schlock Mercenary: An obligatory trope when the mercenaries are hunting a giant shark created by a Mad Scientist. It becomes a Brick Joke after a trigger happy SWAT team blows up the boat they're on, and their lawyer demands a replacement boat as compensation. As this would be punitive damages, that would mean providing a bigger boat than the one they had before.
• Sluggy Freelance:
  • In "The Isle of the Ployees", which is a kind of absurd satire of corporate jobs, Riff is expected to tame a huge monster by whacking it on the head with a small stick.
    "I'm going to need a bigger stick."
    "We don't have a budget for that."
  • "Dangerous Days Ahead", when the heroes and anti-heroes are laying siege to the bad guys and the literal Killer Rabbit Bun-bun fights an alien killing machine and actually starts losing (for about the first time ever in the comic).
    Dr. Schlock: Riff? We're going to need a bigger bunny.
  • In "Freelance Bums", in a reversed parody of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, a bunch of the guys need to make a gay man look like he's straight and his boyfriend is his straight roommate. When they see the boyfriend (called "Sparkles"), Riff comments "We might need a bigger team." When he sees the immaculately decorated apartment, he says "We need a bigger team."
  • Upon coming face-to-face with a giant tiger monster? "Will be needing a larger wetnap than originally thought."

Websites

• What If?:
  • In the entry "Model Rockets", the Alt Text to an image of a "spaceship" a mile wide and ten meters tall, weighing the same as the Great Pyramid is "THIS is your ship? ... we're gonna need a bigger shark."
  • In the "Electrofishing for whales" entry, when faced with the prospect of having to get an entire nuclear power plant on board of their boat, Ponytail comments to Megan that they're going to need a much bigger boat.

Web Videos

• In The Angry Video Game Nerd episode on games based on Steven Spielberg movies, he parodies the Jaws example after finishing the the movie's tie-in game.
  Nerd: We're gonna need a bigger ass... to shit out this fucking turd!
• In the Bronies React video for the 100th episode of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, LittleshyFiM starts by saying that he'll take a bite of a muffin anytime something interesting happens. Of course, barely past one-third of the episode...
  LittleshyFiM: I'm going to need more muffins.

Western Animation

• In The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius, after trying and failing to snow sled, "We need a bigger hill."
• In Danny Phantom during the episode "Public Enemies," a massive group of Walker's goons invades Amity Park. Danny pulls out his thermos and remarks, "I'm gonna need a bigger thermos!" He then gets quickly taken out and his friend Tucker adds: "And a paramedic!"
• "I'm gonna need more rope!" is one of the few lines the Freakazoid! villain Candle Jack ever says. Hello there.
• Justice League Unlimited:
  • In "Twilight", Batman pronounces upon viewing the city of the gods in the sky, "I'm gonna need a longer grapple."
  • In "The Doomsday Sanction", Doomsday mocks Superman after his heat vision has no effect on him. Superman replies, "Then I guess I'll need a bigger fire!" then beats him up and throws him into a volcano.
• The Life and Times of Juniper Lee: In "Welcome Bat Otter", the fear of bat otters made some magical creatures hide inside a cave. Seeing the size of some of the magical creatures seeking shelter made her believe a bigger cave would be needed.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • In "Hearts and Hooves Day", the Cutie Mark Crusaders make a giant heart-shaped card for Miss Cheerilee. They then remark that they need a bigger envelope.
  • In "Apple Family Reunion", when Granny Smith realizes how many Apples will be showing up for the reunion, she says "We're gonna need a bigger cider trough."
• The Powerpuff Girls: When Him has the Powerpuff Girls fight a monster without their powers, Bubbles throws apples at him.
  Bubbles: How do you like them apples?
  Buttercup: We're gonna need something a lot bigger than apples!
  Bubbles: How about grapefruits, then?
• In The Simpsons episode "Lisa's Rival", Homer attempts to fix Marge's camera using an electric drill in a somewhat unconventional manner: he uses it in lieu of a chisel, striking it with a hammer. When this fails, destroying the camera entirely, he remarks "I'm going to need a bigger drill."
• In Sofia the First episode "The Shy Princess", the students of Royal Prep are paired up and each pair has to make a model of their dream castle. Prince James and Prince Zandar make a cannon with a castle on it. When they lose, they believe that they should have made a bigger cannon.
• In the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episode "April's Artifact", Raph grabbed a stick to swat a "lousy little gnat". Leo informs him "You're gonna need a bigger flyswatter" just as a Giant Enemy Bug shows up.
• Teen Titans:
  • Raven defeating a giant Mix and Match Critter in the second Season Finale: "We're gonna need a bigger jail."
  • She also invokes this trope when the Titans throw her a birthday party for the second time. She surveys the scene and remarks, "We're gonna need more ice cream."
• An episode of Tiny Toon Adventures had Elmyra grabbing a goldfish net in order to catch the fuzzy animal she sees. She gets a better view of the animal and sees it's about on par with common perception of Bigfoot size-wise... she goes back inside to grab a butterfly net.
• In W.I.T.C.H., at one point, the titular team is about to go out for ice cream when the Psycho Rangers show up. Irma says "we're going to need more spoons."
• After the New Mutants are added to the X-Men: Evolution cast, Wolverine notes, "We're definitely going to need more instructors. And maybe a couple of tanks."

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...is that all? We're gonna need more examples!

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