That a British comedy series dealing with, among other things, the Upper-Class Twit of the Year Contest, the Ministry of Silly Walks, and a public Argument Clinic would become a cultural phenomenon in the United States during the 1970s was, as comedian Eric Idle said, the last thing in the world one would expect. Nonetheless, Monty Python's Flying Circus, the show Idle helped create, became a significant part of American culture in the years immediately following the Watergate scandal, creating a large cult following among young, college-educated viewers and influencing American comedy and television for decades to come.

The roots of Monty Python's Flying Circus can be found in the satirical comedy boom occurring in both America and Britain during the late 1950s and early 1960s. While satire in the States was the province of nightclub comics and...