Regi Pokémon

About

Regi Pokémon, also known as the Legendary Titans, refers to the Legendary Pokémon Regirock, Regice, Registeel, Regigigas, Regidrago and Regieleki. Each Pokémon has a faceless design and are styled based on their typing. The blocky design of the characters and their cries from the Pokémon movies have led them to be the subject of numerous memes in the Pokémon fandom since the original trio (Regirock, Registeel and Regice) were first introduced to the series in 2002.

Origin

Regirock, Regice and Registeel were first introduced in the third generation of Pokémon games Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, first released November 21st, 2002 in Japan.^[1] Catching the Pokémon in the games involved an arduous puzzle-solving process that included having certain Pokémon know certain moves and decoding Braille (catching tutorial shown below).

Regigigas, the "master" of the previous three Pokémon, was introduced in Generation IV, and was also acquired through an obscure method and required the player to have caught the other three titans first (shown below).

Regidrago and Regieleki were introduced in the Pokémon Sword and Shield The Crown Tundra DLC, and the player must choose to catch one or the other in their game and trade for the other. The other Regis are also available in the DLC and are attainable by completing far simpler puzzles than in previous games.

Spread

The Regi Pokémon have been the subject of numerous memes throughout the late 2000s and 2010s. In particular, the Regi Pokémon have been popularly used in memes such as Running Ganger and Pull My Devil Trigger edits (examples shown below).

The Pokémon have also inspired a large amount of fan art, with a running joke that Regigigas is the parent of the other Regi Pokémon^[2] (examples shown below).

Regicries

On January 9th, 2020, a Pokémon Direct^[3] included two new Regi Pokémon, Regieleki and Regidrago, in an announcement for new Pokémon Sword and Shield DLC. Following this, memes revolving around the original Regi trio's cries, especially that of Regirock, gained popularirty. In 2008, YouTuber Shukakugaara2089 posted a compilation of the original Regi trio's cries from the 2005 movie Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew, gaining over 3.9 million views in twelve years (shown below). Prior to this, the Regi trio had not appeared in the anime.

Sometime before January 17th, 2020,^[4] an Instagram user with the handle misosakii created a Why Do Women Only Like Stupid Jerks meme including Regirock and Registeel's cries. Uploaded to YouTube^[5] on February 25th by XDZS, the video gained over 1.5 million views in eight months (shown below, left). A meme of Playboi Carti's "Kid Cudi / Pissy Pamper" featuring the original trio's cries was uploaded to YouTube^[6] on January 22nd, receiving over 360,000 views in nine months (shown below, right). On the same day, the video was featured on iFunny,^[7] amassing over 44,000 smiles in the same period.

Beta Regigigas

Beta Regigigas refers to an unused sprite for the legendary Pokémon Regigigas discovered in the 2020 Nintendo Source Code Gigaleak. The sprite looks similar to the released version, though the beta sprite lacks the grass on the shoulders and feet of the released version and it is more hunched over. Online, fans made jokes about the beta Regigigas by emphasizing how it looked like it was strutting.

Upon the discovery of the unused sprite, fans began making photoshops featuring the sprite, emphasizing beta Regigigas' posture. Internet users inserted the sprite into other memes; for example, Twitter user @wafflebandito photoshopped the sprite into John Lennon The Absolute Madman, gaining over 200 retweets and 800 likes (shown below, left). KnowYourMeme user sims2822 uploaded an Abbey Road parody including beta Regigigas along with several other beta sprites (shown below, right).

Regirocktok / Cv nty Regirock With A Handbag

On TikTok, one of the most popular accounts dedicated to Regi memes is Regirocktok, which focuses on inserting Regirock into other famous memes. For example, on April 11th, 2024, they posted an edit that gained over 1.3 million views in ten days (shown below, left). They also started a wider meme on the app with an edit of Regirock holding a handbag, which they dubbed Cv nty regirock with a handbag. On March 28th, they posted their first edit with the character, gaining over 65,000 likes in two weeks (shown below, right).

"Cv nty regirock with a handbag" grew popular on the platform in April of 2024. For example, on April 22nd, user @whampaige joked they were getting a "lobotomy" because all they could think about was the phrase, gaining over 5,800 likes in one day (shown below, left). On the same day, the official TikTok account of the NFL's Buffalo Bills utilized the "Regirock with a handbag" meme, gaining over 3,700 likes in a matter of hours (shown below, right)

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References