You could have knocked me over with a spoon

In the hospital after her husband’s procedure, the wife was recounting the story of how the doctor gave her some news and she exclaimed, “You could have knocked me over with a spoon!”  This is an interesting one, as it mixes I think various sounds and idioms.  Certainly the speaker intended to say “you could have knocked me over with a feather” (overcome with astonishment or surprise), and a similar meaning phrase is “knocked me for a loop”.  Loop and spoon sound alike, which could have been the confusion.  There is also the expression, “gag me with a spoon” (disgusted) which the speaker may have also been thinking about.  Interestingly, an internet search of the phrase reveals hundreds of times this malaphor has been used,  for example:

https://books.google.com/books?id=mVDVfkPAuqAC&pg=PT64&lpg=PT64&dq=%22knocked+me+over+with+a+spoon%22&source=bl&ots=N7kB1Rj_AV&sig=XTC3FvtHsGHhEnPrPPHTzbYwg3Q&hl=en&sa=X&ei=KSX2VPqlMsqkNv6_g5gE&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22knocked%20me%20over%20with%20a%20spoon%22&f=false

A big shout out to Daniel Mustard for sending this one in.