Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969)

The sketch show's theme is not British at all: it is The Liberty Bell, an 1893 march by the American bandmaster John Philip Sousa, in a recording by the Band of the Grenadier Guards. It was picked partly because it had fallen into the public domain, so the team could use it without paying royalties. What made it immortal was the ending. Just as the march gets going, Terry Gilliam's giant animated foot stamps down with a rude splat, and a stately military tune became the sound of British absurdity. Brass bands play it straight, and audiences still wait for the foot.