Some of the sketches from Monty Python’s Flying Circus may now seem a bit dated, but this is mainly because they have been built-upon and imitated. Even so, you can still see how daring and imaginative the programme was and these shows are a permanent reminder as to why the team are hailed as comedy legends.

Terry Jones once commented that the fact they had created a new word in the dictionary showed how miserably they had failed – their absurdist humour becoming definable and part of the Establishment.

Natural entertainers
For his part, Michael Palin says the group was just doing what came naturally, especially in the beginning. They didn't feel they were blazing trails, though Palin admits the group's unorthodox comedy – the bizarre transitions from one sketch to another, and the mixing of silliness with intellectual concepts – gave the BBC a lot of trouble.

This flow of each show, the loss of the traditional "punchline" to a sketch, and the experimentation set a standard which comedians who followed found it hard to get away from. Producers such as John Lloyd and writer/performers like Ben Elton acknowledge the enormous influence of Monty Python's Flying Circus on their work.

Breaking with tradition
Once the Pythons decided to virtually do away with the traditional idea of using punchlines to finish a sketch, instead preferring to move quickly from one segment to the next, they unleashed their full writing potential. Ideas that were funny, yet would have been rejected before because of having a weak ending, could now be used.

The Fast Show – comedy programme of the mid-1990s, borrowed this technique.  Paul Whitehouse, writer and performer in the sketch show, cites Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Monty Python as his main influences.

Monty Python’s Flying Circus took the stylistic risks that others have copied, and their manipulation of the medium paved the way for much of the 'new wave' of comedy in the late seventies and eighties.

Not least The Young Ones.  A short fourth BBC series, screened in 1974 under the reduced title of Monty Python, was made without John Cleese and is generally considered to be the weakest of the four television series, with John's departure unbalancing the group. 

Sick sense of humour
However, it did finish on a high. The last-ever show featured one of Python's most memorable creations, the Garibaldi clan, living a disgusting life in a grotesque parody of the BBC2 fly-on-the-wall documentary series The Family, with Terry Gilliam especially horrible as the Garibaldis' baked beans-obsessed son Kevin.

The hard-hitting, loud, over-the-top style of this sketch was a precursor of the groundbreaking British comedy series, The Young Ones, which first aired in 1982. Violent and infantile, The Young Ones was unlike any other previous sitcom. Instead of sticking to familiar story structures and neat endings, the show took an almost surrealist approach, with the story frequently going off on random tangents to completely unrelated characters and jokes. In this respect the influence of sketch shows such as Monty Python's Flying Circus can clearly be seen.

Just as Monty Python used animated sequences, the action in The Young Ones would be interrupted by talking puppets. Vyvyan's pet hamster and the house's resident rats and flies all made appearances.

The recent sketch show Little Britain also has echoes of Monty Python’s more disgusting moments, including racist ladies of provincial England projectile vomiting. This is more than just a nod to the ever-puking Mr Creosote in Python’s film The Meaning Of Life. 

Little Britain also focuses on stereotypes of British people, just as Monty Python did, although Python member Terry Jones says his group was a satire on mankind, rather than on individuals.

Python influence
Wherever avant garde, chaotic or inventive comedy appears, a Python influence is a safe bet. The overall impact and influence of the show is difficult to overestimate. Without Monty Python there would have been no Fawlty Towers, The Young Ones, Blackadder, The Fast Show, Little Britain, Big Train, South Park, The League Of Gentlemen or Jam.

Its influence continues in postmodern advertising, and even The Simpsons - the show about America's most famous dysfunctional family.