Monty Python

Monty Python's Flying Circus was a moderately funny British comedy series that aired in the 1970s, and was followed up with by several moderately funny comedy films. Unfortunately, quite a lot of British people have now disavowed all knowledge of the Pythons due to a number of factors:

• Foreigners (usually Americans, but also Europeans and others) quoting Python incessantly as though they're the first person to ever reference the Parrot Sketch.

• Saturation of British audiences of the best sketches due to appearing on compilation shows every five minutes since 1978 means that they have lost most of their humour.

• Monty Python, like most classic comedy, was much spottier than most people would have you believe, and there were usually only a couple of really good sketches in each hour-long programme (as noted by Flocculencio). Most of the more irritating mindless Python-quoters appear to have only seen the 'best of' compilations, which is unsurprising given that they only seem to know the words to three sketches, all of which they repeat unto the end of time on a perpetual-motion-machine spool.

• Michael Palin becoming a slightly dotty round-the-world traveller, who still found time to be completely awesome in every thing he's ever been in post-python.

Over-Pythoning behaviour in a thread is sometimes curtailed with the announcement “NO-ONE EXPECTS THE ANTI-PYTHON INQUISITION!!!!!!”

The first point given here has begun to apply to other British comedic creations: mindless over-quoting by foreigners now threatens to make Red Dwarf, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and even Discworld unfunny. In order to prevent this, sensible British members have put the worst perpetrators on Ignore to avoid being infected by this; otherwise Englishmen 'round the world will be forced to resort to being purposefully unfunny to combat this problem!