I’m going through the hoops

The speaker was buying a new house, and someone asked how the process was going and this was his reply. It is a perfectly formed conflation of “jumping through hoops” (to face or complete many challenges that seem excessive or arbitrary) and “going through the motions” (to do the base functions of some activity without much thought or interest). Both phrases involve going through a series of activities, and both contain the word “through”, causing the mental hiccup. There is a legit phrase “going through hoops” but with the extra “the” I think this constitutes as a malaphor. A big thanks to high school friend Phil Chumley for unintentionally saying this one and recognizing that it was malaphor worthy!