# Reginald 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. ## Origin 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 species[1]. 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 week[2]. Four days later, on January 22, 2019, Redditor WuluKin reposted the image to /r/me_irl, where it pulled more than 43,900 upvotes[2]. - **Platform:** Reddit (/r/surrealmemes origin, /r/me_irl viral spread) - **Creator:** Reddit user sprongleed_omlet - **Date:** 2019 ## 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 image[1]. 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 arthropod[2]. 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 keep[2]. 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. ## How to Use The template typically keeps Wolf's spider crab photograph[1] 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 broken[2]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Reginald? 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[2]. ### 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[1][2]. ### 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[3]. ### 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[2]. ### 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[2]. ## References 1. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_spider_crab]() 2. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/reginald]() 3. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Reginald]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/reginald Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library