Stars describe Monty Python's influence

Saturday Night Live (1975-)

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.”