Hunger Hyperbole

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Oftentimes in life, when people are really hungry, they'd make a statement that they are so hungry that they could eat a horse. Sometimes, this may often overlap with Hold Your Hippogriffs.

Examples of Hunger Hyperbole include:

Anime and Manga

• From Digimon Adventure:

Tai: I'm so hungry I could eat a horse! Izzy: I'd settle for a small cow.

• I distinctly remember Ash from "Pokémon" saying at one point, "I'm so hungry I could eat a Horsea!"

Comic Strip

• One Mad strip. Four teenagers in a diner.

Teen #1: "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse!" Teen #2: "I'm so hungry I could eat a rhino!" Teen #3: "I'm so hungry I could eat an elephant, including trunk and tusks!" Teen #4: "Now I lost my appetite!"

Film

• Played with in Apollo 13. Astronaut Fred Haise is getting sick during the flight; Jim Lovell asks if he'd like to skip the next meal, and he responds, "Are you kidding? I could eat the ass end out of a rhinoceros."
• In The Lion King, Simba says that he's so hungry that he could eat a zebra.
• Pappas of Point Break gave us "I'm so hungry I could eat the ass end out of a dead rhino!"
• In One Hundred and One Dalmatians, the puppy Rolly insisted "I'm so hungry I could eat a... a whole elephant!" (even though he just ate).
• Flight of the Navigator gave us this conversation:

David: Where do you go next, Max? Max: Back in time to when I picked up my creatures. By now they're so hungry, they could eat a zigzog. David: What's a zigzog? Max: Kind of like a hippo, but with feathers.

• An unusual variant by Vic from Neighbors: "Ramona and I haven't eaten all day. We could eat a baby's butt through a park bench."
• Fred from The Foot Fist Way gives another strange variant: "I'm so hungry I could eat a grown man's ass right now!"
• McCabe and Mrs. Miller:

Mrs. Miller: I'm hungry enough I could eat a bloody horse. John McCabe: Well, at Sheehan's place you probably will. Mrs. Miller: Ah, the frontier wit, I see.

• Phido the Vulture in The Princess And The Cobbler: "I'm so hungry I could eat a vegetarian."
• Itchy from All Dogs Go to Heaven 2: "I'm so hungry, I could eat a shoe."
• Roy from White Lightning: "I'm so hungry I could eat the tail-end out of a hobby-horse."
• Nan from The Bad Mother's Handbook: "When's tea ready? I could eat a buttered frog."
• From Sweet Land:

Brownie: You hungry? hungry? Inge: I could eat a horse. Brownie: Well we could find dat.

• Cheech and Chong - The Corsican Brothers: "I'm so hungry I could eat a bowl of lard with a hair in it!"
  • A squickier version from Things are Tough all Over; "I could eat the crotch out of a dead horse!"
• In (at least) the Rankin/Bass Productions adaptation of The Return of the King, Frodo is so parched of thirst as they approach Mount Doom that he muses "if Sauron himself were to offer me a glass of water, I'd shake his hand."

Literature

• In the Myth Adventures book where he masquerades as a king, Skeeve accidentally comments to the cook that he's hungry enough to eat a bear. Shortly thereafter he's served a whole, roasted bear.

Live Action TV

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer ("Faith, Hope & Trick"):

Faith: God, I could eat a horse. Isn't it crazy how slaying just always makes you hungry and horny?

• Angel ("Carpe Noctem"):

Angel: [as Marcus] Somebody say something about food? I could eat a horse.

• Mash ("The Bus"):

Col. Potter: I'm so hungry I could eat a horse. May the First Cavalry forgive me.

• The Addams Family ("Morticia, the Matchmaker"):

Morticia: Mama is cooking up a real surprise. Gomez: I am so hungry I could eat a wolf. Morticia: Gomez, you guessed it!

• The Waltons ("The Homecoming: A Christmas Story"):

Mary Ellen: I'm so hungry I could eat a horse. Grandma: If this depression gets any worse, you may have to.

• Gunsmoke ("Custer"):

Chester Goode: I'm so hungry I could eat a whole hog. Marshal Matt Dillon: This is all the hog you get this morning.

• Toby from Power Rangers Mystic Force ("Rock Solid"): "I'm so hungry, I could eat the Oldies section."
• Archie from A Nero Wolfe Mystery ("Prisoner's Base: Part 1"): "I'm hungry! I had a soda fountain lunch. I could eat a porcupine with quills on it. Let's go home!"

Video Games

• In Zelda: Wand of Gamelon, Link says that he's so hungry he could eat an Octorok.

Web Comics

• In Flaky Pastry the horse version is used. Cue Zintiel coming back to the camp with a dead unicorn.

Western Animation

• Veggie Tales: In "The Gourds Must be Crazy" (from "Are You my Neighbour"), Jimmy and Jerry Gourd start trying to one-up each other on statements about their hunger. The conversation ends with Jimmy saying he could eat an entire planet. Then it turns out this isn't hyperbole at all: the Gourds save the ship by eating a popcorn ball meteorite.
  • This gets a callback in a later episode, "Dave and the Giant Pickle". This time, since the Gourds are playing the parts of ancient Israelites, the conversation plays out rather differently:

Jimmy: You know, sometimes I get so hungry, I could eat a whole camel! Jerry: Oh yeah? Sometimes I get so hungry, I could eat a whole spaceship! Jimmy: What's a spaceship? Jerry: …I have no idea.

• In The Magic School Bus episode "For Lunch", Arnold begins to insist "Not hungry? But I could eat a..." before Wanda, inside his stomach and pretending to be his conscience, cuts him off and forces him to drink instead.
• Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog gives this mixed metaphor:

Sonic: Eat our dust, Coconuts! Tails: I'm so hungry I could eat our dust!

• Family Guy episode "Mr. Griffin Goes To Washington".

Chris: Can't we eat? I'm so hungry I could ride a horse. I don't get it. Well, I could ride it to the store, I guess.

• While stranded on an island on The Simpsons.

Terri: I'm so hungry I could eat at Arby's!