Who Is Spiders Georg? The Cave-Dwelling, Spider-Eating Meme Man Explained

Somewhere far up in the mountains, a reclusive man takes it upon himself to eat all of the spiders that you won't eat. Singlehandedly, this courageous outlier gobbles spiders just to make sure that one of the internet's favorite debunked statistics — that the average person swallows eight spiders a year — remains true. He is Spiders Georg.

Where Did Spiders Georg Come From?

Spiders Georg derives from a statistic published way back in 1954 which alleged that the average person swallows eight spiders per year in their sleep. This statistic, which is false, became an early internet joke as it circulated in e-mail chains and on chatrooms through the 1990s and into the early 2000s. In 2013, Tumblr user Max Lavergne set out to correct the false information this factoid had spread, writing:

average person eats 3 spiders a year" factoid actualy (sic) just statistical error. average person eats 0 spiders per year. Spiders Georg, who lives in cave & eats over 10,000 each day, is an outlier adn should not have been counted”

From there, Tumblr picked up the idea of Spiders Georg, the cave-dwelling eater of spiders, and ran with it.

Who Is Spiders Georg?

Spiders Georg lives in a cave and eats a lot of spiders. But a lot of other lore has been generated around him, reflecting a pattern that is seen in other Tumblr memes like Goncharov. The Tumblr community creatively builds an entire world around Spiders Georg or some other random character that is equal parts goofy and serious.

Are Statistics Actually Wrong?

Much of the discourse surrounding Spiders Georg centered on math: whether 10,000 spiders a day was enough to skew the average for an entire population, or if Spiders Georg would have to eat considerably more.

The character came to symbolize how sometimes statistics don't tell the full story, and an eye-catching number might sometimes hide more about the data set than it actually reveals. In the years since Spiders Georg's original fame on Tumblr, the logic around his case has been applied to others:

How Is His Name Pronounced?

Spiders GEE-YORG, according to most.

Is Spiders Georg Still Used Today?

Spiders Georg continues to be remembered fondly a decade after his initial burst of viral popularity. Yesterday's Tumblr teens are now TikTok twentysomethings, and they have transmitted the lore of Spiders Georg to new generations. He's a bit of a throwback, but an oldie is a goldie.

In the end, Spiders Georg is more than just a meme character: he's an important piece of our shared heritage.

For the full history of Spiders Georg, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.