TISM were distinguished from other 'joke' or 'gimmick bands', by, among other things, their musical style. The band rarely in any seriousness stated actual influences on the type of music they played, except that The Residents were a band which TISM 'did' notice and 'possibly' took some influence from. A clear link can be drawn from The Residents' "The Third Reich 'n' Roll" video, in which that band wore Ku Klux Klan uniforms made of newspaper: TISM did exactly this at their first gig. Another link may be drawn to early TISM tracks "The Ballad of the Semitic Nazi" or "I'm Gonna Treat Ya to a Neitschze Double Feature" "(sic)" which use a similar naming convention to The Residents. Other bands which may have influenced TISM are difficult to pinpoint, although a "Sydney Morning Herald" article on the band described them as "a cross between Skyhooks, Dave Warner, Talking Heads and The Residents".