Bill Hicks: "Why not 'Goldfish left Lincoln Logs in your sock drawer'?"

If Bill Hicks was still alive, he would have turned 49 today. Sadly, he passed away in 1994, but the Twitterverse is coming to his rescue by making this birthday a trending topic.

It started (as so many things with Hicks do) in the UK, when @stephenfry (yup, that Stephen Fry) gave the grassroots movement momentum when he retweeted this:

Trying to get #HappyBirthdayBill trending as the great man would of been 49 today Bill Hicks total Legend! Please help :0)

For a lot of Texans, the comedian is always connected to his Houston roots, but in his later years he was firmly connected to the Austin comedy scene. Just check out this bit from his posthumously released 1997 album Rant in E-Minor, about the Branch Davidian standoff in Waco:

I was in Australia, and the Australians had a big contingency at the Branch Davidian compound, and I’m from Texas, so they were very curious. They were asking me all about it. They were like, ‘Oh, this guy is so weird, this guy Koresh is so weird.’ And I was thinking, ‘Well, wait a minute. Frustrated rock musician, with a messianic complex, armed to the teeth and trying to fuck everything that moves.’ I don’t know how to tell you this. Sounds like every one of my friends in Austin. I don’t know if this is going to be an isolated incident. Waiting for Will Sexton to build a compound somewhere.

So, if you happen to be Tweeting today, throw your own favorite Hicks quote out there with the #HappyBirthdayBill hashtag on there.

This article appears in December 10 • 2010.

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The Chronicle's first Culture Desk editor, Richard has reported on Austin's growing film production and appreciation scene for over a decade. A graduate of the universities of York, Stirling, and UT-Austin, a Rotten Tomatoes certified critic, and eight-time Best of Austin winner, he's currently at work on two books and a play.