I remember when British comedy was literally a foreign concept to most Americans. I"m not talking about Benny Hill who was over-the-top slapstick, because every culture has slapstick comedians. But "Monty Python's Flying Circus" was one of those things that became funny one day in your teens, as if a light finally clicked on after years of wondering why PBS was wasting air time by showing it. And once it was seen, it could not be unseen.

Even to this day, I don't think a lot of Americans get British comedy. The Edgar Wright collaborations with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are among the funniest movies of the past 15 years. John Cleese was the only one of Palin's troupe that seemed to translate into any sort of a career in Hollywood.