During the 70s, like many other academically positive teens, I was obsessed by the several audio LPs of the show, and their two books, which my older married sister had: Monty Python's Big Red Book, a reference to Mao Zedong's Little Red Book, which my American brother in law (and then Uni politics student) had a copy of, and The Brand New Monty Python Bok. I realise now that this was an early version of the Internet, in the sense of allowing me to access ideas and images that were much ignored or even subversive or illicit in the mainstream. The average UK comedy show did not reference philosophers, modern art or mind blowing animations featuring classical and historical images. What you call "random" I call mind opening, and I owe them.