The "handle" gag which MtheGM mentions is a good example of an idea Reg Smythe recycled through a couple of different situations. "A good joke is always worth telling twice, particularly if you dress it up a little," he says in the Les Lilley book. "Most people won't recognise an old joke if you relocate it and give it a new suit."

I wish I'd seen the Flo & Andy version before writing my piece, because it's a much more precise parallel with the real-life incident I wanted to compare it to. I can't help in dating it though, I'm afraid, as it's one of the many strips that never made it into any Andy collection. So many of Smythe's Andy Capp strips were lost in this way.