Reginald is an image macro built on a Japanese spider crab photograph, captioned to introduce the crab as a visitor named Reginald who only appears on alternating Tuesdays.

Where did Reginald come from?

Redditor sprongleed_omlet posted the format to /r/surrealmemes on January 18, 2019, using photographer Michael Wolf's spider crab image that had been on Wikipedia since 2006.

What does Reginald mean?

The name Reginald is a slang term for "king, ruler, counselor," derived from the word "regal," and is common across the UK and Ireland.

How do you use Reginald?

Users pair the spider crab photograph with text about the crab's schedule or persona, typically preserving the "alternating Tuesdays" beat or riffing on missed appearances.

Is Reginald still popular?

Reginald's biggest run was the January 2019 stretch across /r/surrealmemes and /r/me_irl, and it holds status as a classic surreal Reddit image macro from that year.

Reginald

2019image macroclassic

Published September 24, 2026

Reginald is an image macro pairing a photograph of a Japanese spider crab with a caption declaring the animal is only present on alternating Tuesdays. Redditor sprongleed_omlet seeded the format in January 2019 on /r/surrealmemes, and within four days it jumped to /r/me_irl to become one of that community's stranger 2019 in-jokes.

absurdist humor memes image macro memes captioned animal memes subreddit origin memes surreal memes

Overview

The Reginald format uses photographer Michael Wolf's photograph of a Japanese spider crab (Macrocheira kaempferi), first added to Wikipedia in 2006 as the article's lead image1. The meme overlays text framing the crab as a formal visitor named Reginald who is only present on alternating Tuesdays, a joke that lands because the bureaucratic scheduling language sits so oddly against an enormous deep-sea arthropod2.

The humor sits in the tradition of surrealist calendar posts like "It Is Wednesday, My Dudes," but Reginald flipped that formula by adding a strict two-week rotation the crab is expected to keep2. Follow-up posts kept the same Wolf photo but tweaked the schedule text, added apologies for missed Tuesdays, or built lore around Reginald's supposed absences.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Reddit (/r/surrealmemes origin, /r/me_irl viral spread)

Creator

Reddit user sprongleed_omlet

Date

2019

The base image predates the meme by more than a decade. On December 23, 2006, Wikipedia user Lycaon uploaded Michael Wolf's Japanese spider crab photograph to illustrate the article for the species1.

The meme itself started on January 18, 2019, when Redditor sprongleed_omlet posted the image to /r/surrealmemes with the caption introducing the crab as "Reginald" who "is only here on alternating Tuesdays." The post picked up over 1,400 upvotes in a week2. Four days later, on January 22, 2019, Redditor WuluKin reposted the image to /r/me_irl, where it pulled more than 43,900 upvotes2.

How It Spread

Reginald's biggest single-day push came on January 29, 2019, when Redditor Vestergaard_GOAT reposted the crab and drew more than 19,400 upvotes in a day2. That upload also triggered the running gag that defined the meme's second wave. Commenters on /r/me_irl pointed out that Reginald had shown up on a Tuesday that broke his own alternating rule, which turned the schedule into a bit users argued about in the thread2.

Later that same day, other /r/me_irl posters ran with the mistake. WuluKin, who had brought the crab to /r/me_irl a week earlier, posted an in-character explanation claiming Reginald had "realized his mistake" and would "return again next Tuesday"2. The scheduling error became part of the joke rather than a break in it.

On January 30, 2019, an unlogged Wikipedia editor vandalized the Japanese spider crab article to graft Reginald lore into the encyclopedia entry for the species, briefly bringing the meme back to the source image's original context2. Reginald stayed a fixture of surreal Reddit humor after the January run, with the name still carrying its older meaning of "king" or "ruler" in general slang usage3.

Timeline

2006-12-23

Wikipedia user Lycaon uploads Michael Wolf's photograph of a Japanese spider crab to illustrate the species article.

2019-01-18

Redditor sprongleed_omlet posts the image to /r/surrealmemes with the caption naming the crab Reginald, drawing 1,400+ upvotes in a week.

2019-01-22

Redditor WuluKin reposts Reginald to /r/me_irl, where it hits over 43,900 upvotes.

2019-01-29

Vestergaard_GOAT reposts Reginald on a non-alternating Tuesday, breaking the schedule joke, and picks up 19,400+ upvotes in one day.

2019-01-30

An anonymous Wikipedia editor vandalizes the Japanese spider crab article by adding Reginald meme details.

How to Use This Meme

The template typically keeps Wolf's spider crab photograph1 and pairs it with declarative text about Reginald's schedule, mood, or identity. Common convention preserves the "alternating Tuesdays" cadence, though remixes often swap the framing or invent excuses when the Tuesday timing gets broken2.