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 memesimage macro memescaptioned animal memessubreddit origin memessurreal 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.

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.

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.

Frequently Asked Questions