This memorial site was created in memory of Willam James Taitoko, who was born in 1948 and died on August 7, 1991.

A Kiwi icon

If you don't know this guy, buy his book: The Billy T. James Real Hard-Case Book.

So little is written about him on the Internet that Remembering felt it just had to revive his memory.

``Dad, what's GST mean?''      ``Same as IOU.''

That kind of humour enchanted baby-boomers Downunder through the 80s as the warm-hearted, black singlet, yellow towel-wearing, chuckling Billy T became loved as the bro who knew a thing or two about life. He took a heart transplant in 1988, succumbed to a heart attack in 1991 and, had he lived today, would have blown away Politically Correct as Pure Crap.

If you don't believe it, who would get on television today with: '`I'm half-Mâori and half-Scottish: one half of me wants to get pissed and the other half doesn't want to pay for it.'

Billy T changed his name so Australians could pronounce it. Upped The Establishment in everything he said and sketched but especially in gigs like Turangi Vice, in which the vice squad busied itself catching trout poachers.

He lampooned Entertainment This Week with an hilarious gig Entertainment That's Weak; and survived till his death as a household name despite TVNZ dropping his show in the mid-80s because it cost too much to produce.

There must be thousands of you out there who remember Billy T. Share a tribute, if you will.