I’m starting to recognize types of gags developing among my strips.  One that I seem to use a lot lately has been this one, where I take some root gag that isn’t original and make it the premise of the strip, adding new humor to it by adding context.  This actually came from a one-panel cartoon I read decades ago, in which a scientist is holding a test tube containing a slimy looking creature who tells him “Congratulations, you’ve just created laboratory life!”

So this is a stolen premise, rather than a stolen gag.  I can think of half a dozen strips where I have taken this approach.