Sometimes such sayings develop successors. The following example was told me by Maurice Samuel of blessed memory.

There used to be a Yiddish expression for drifting around helplessly: "vi a frantsoiz in Rusland" (like a Frenchman in Russia, referring to Napoleon's retreat). This was parodied as "vi a farts im roisl" (like a fart in the pickle barrel, referring to fermentation bubbles working their way up between the pickles. By the time my father learned it (in English), it had lost its historical roots and become simply "like a fart in the marketplace".