Pressed for the most important figure of the 20th Century, few of us would name They Might Be Giants' John Flansburgh.

However the TMBG guitarist now sees his name being bandied about next to Jesus Christ and Adolf Hitler in an online poll designed to determine the Person of the Century. The poll, being conducted by Time magazine's website has logged votes for historical figures like Gandhi, Billy Graham, Winston Churchill, and Ronald Reagan, as well as Flansburgh and a few other surprises.

[article id="1451118"]"He's behind, I think number one is I believe Jesus Christ, number two is Adolf Hitler, number three is the wrestler Ric Flair, and Flansburgh is at number four," [/article] his TMBG partner John Linnell told the MTV Radio Network recently. [article id="1451118"] "And then behind him are some very serious notables.

If I find that Ric Flair,

I'm gonna kick his ass," [/article] Flansburgh barked. [article id="1451118"] "I'm warning you Ric Flair, it's me Jesus and Hitler. There's no room for you. Get out." [28.8 RealVideo] [/article]

While Linnell admits that it "would be a major coup for us to be recognized for Mr. Flansburgh's importance in the century to be recognized," the band is used to being a prime example of the truly democratic nature of the Internet.

Last year, I'm sorry this year, I had the honor of being voted ninth most beautiful person of 1998 on the People Online Poll," Linnell explained. "You could still go visit and there's a picture of me and they really make it seem legitimate, which is pretty hilarious given that the number one, the winner by an enormous margin is this guy named Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf and then followed I think by Leonardo DiCaprio and some other more likely people. Somehow, I wound up as number nine and I'm pretty sure that this is mostly attributable

to the members of our audience who know enough about the Internet to be able to effectively stuff the ballot without it being noticed by the people running the poll.

Speaking about his placement next to the 20th Century's pivotal figures, Flansburgh added, "That pretty much says it all the value of this new technological tool.

If you'd like to push Flansburgh over the top, voting is still open at www.time.com.