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A Malaphor is when two common idioms or cliches get mixed up, producing a nonsensical and often amusing hybrid. The word is generally ascribed to Lawrence Harrison who wrote a piece 'Searching for Malaphors' in the Washington Post August 6 1976. Malaphors often have a kind of weird surreal sense of their own

A couple of classic examples will give the flavour.

'We'll burn that bridge when we come to it'

'He smokes like a fish'

Here's a new one I heard a couple of days ago

'That's all spilt milk under the bridge now'