The "standard" for dissimilar items is usually Chalk and Cheese.  Apples and Oranges is used as a rebutal where the compairee has made the basic mistake of grouping two items that may be similar in nature but have dissimilar properties which make any comparison invalid.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Becan

craigb
This is like comparing Bapu and The Bapu.
(They're both nutty as fruit cakes with little appeal.)

DOH!

My pet peeve is "re-inventing the wheel". As if that were a bad thing. Maybe a round rock on a wooden axle was the epitome of wheel design, but I'm glad there's been some reinvention over the years.

Hi,
 
As usual, the replies are just like ... Apples and Oranges!

Moshkiae
Hi,
 
As usual, the replies are just like ... Apples and Oranges!

Sweet and easy to carry around?

craigb
Compare and contrast are like becan and eggs, ya?

The chicken was involved, the pig was committed.

 
I could never remember the proper lyrics to The Bell-ends of St Clements

bitflipper
My pet peeve is "re-inventing the wheel". As if that were a bad thing. Maybe a round rock on a wooden axle was the epitome of wheel design, but I'm glad there's been some reinvention over the years.

The wheel sure gets a lot of attention, but would be useless without a proper axle.
(Maybe this is why most politicians are axles?)

The one that gets me is "it always happens in threes" and the lengths people will go to "prove this".  I know a few people who get really annoyed when you point out the fact that other than when a group of three people are killed by a bomb or something simultaneously, most things happen one at a time. I have an ex that used to always wait until a third celebrity had died to bring out the "it happens in threes" and get highly offended if you pointed out some provable fact like she missed a celebrity that also died during that period , making it four.

Apples to oranges...is that like comparing Bapu and Mooch?