Monty Python influenced Who?

Saturday Night Live (1975-)

According to Tina Fey: ''Sketch endings are overrated. Their key was to do something as long as it was funny and then just stop and do something else.''

SCTV (1976-84)

Martin Short: ''Their influence was that absurdity in character could replace the punchline, the ba-dum-bum thing.''

Cheech and Chong films like Up in Smoke (1978)

Tommy Chong: ''They were the first to really show the world how funny men dressed as women could look.''

The Kids in the Hall (1988-94)

Kevin McDonald: ''We, at the very least subconsciously, stole things. We tried not to, but what can you do? It's like how every rock group sounds like the Beatles.''

The Simpsons (1989-)

Creator Matt Groening: ''I just saw this streak in British humor of whimsical surrealism with just a hint of cruelty, and I found that incredibly appealing.''

Christopher Guest films like Waiting for Guffman (1996) Catherine O'Hara: ''I didn't know any of the rules of sketch comedy at the time, but I knew in my gut they were breaking them all. They were fearless in their silliness.''

The Daily Show (1996-) Stephen Colbert: ''There was one phrase they used. . .'justly underrated' — that torturing of words, when the words eat themselves, you'll find that all through the stuff I do.''

Austin Powers (1997-2002)

Mike Myers: ''Everything I've ever done can be distilled to at least one Python sketch. If comedy had a periodic element table, Python would have more than one atom on it.''

South Park (1997-)

Cocreator Matt Stone: ''They talked different, dressed different. Python was surreal and absurdist — so f---in' smart.''

Country music (ongoing)

Clint Black, who's performed Meaning of Life's''Galaxy Song'': '''The Penis Song' just wouldn't do. If you go through my music and find the ridiculous, that was Python's influence.''

Who knew Monty Python's Flying Circus would spawn these current comedy greats? Most likely, not even them or even Monty Python knew.