It scared the death out of me

This one was heard on an old Abbott and Costello episode entitled, “Safari”. Lou was terrified after seeing a gorilla and blurted out this mashup. It appears it was an ad lib so I am ruling this one unintentional, thus making it a bona fide malaphor. It is a congruent conflation of “scared to death” and “scared the crap/hell out of me”, both meaning to be shocked or frightened very suddenly. A big thanks to John Kooser for hearing this one and sending it in!