NEW YORK — The first Monday of May is over and the Met Gala memes are upon us.

From multiple feline interpretations to an uncanny throwback to the infamous "blue or gold" dress of 2015, social media was, as always, abuzz with commentary on fashion's biggest night out at the annual by-invite-only fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute on May 1.

Surpassing the swarm of celebrities in attendance, the star of the show turned out to be none other than a cockroach.

The arrival of the surprise pest — sorry, guest — was first announced by Variety at about 9.30pm in New York (9.30am, Singapore time), three hours after the official start of the red carpet livestream in the United States.

A video posted on Twitter by the entertainment news site, which has been viewed 22.9 million times, was captioned simply: "A cockroach has arrived at the #MetGala."

In the 22-second video, the roach can be seen getting up the stairs, cutting a sharp silhouette against the champagne-coloured carpet as celebrity photographer Kevin Mazur backs up to get a good shot of it and onlookers cheer for him.

The roach — which social media users have hailed as "an icon, a legend, the moment" — did not respond to requests for its designer, news agency AP reported.

Twitter users, though, were quick to offer their own interpretations of its unique look.

Artist Travis Chapman, on the other hand, put his own spin on the moment with an acrylic painting of the roach, resplendent in a sparkly purple number.

Even international viewers joined in the fun, with Malaysian TikToker Cabi posting a video of herself dressing in a cockroach suit and posing for the camera in front of her kitchen counter.

"I had the best photos," she boasted in her caption. Her video garnered 1.3 million views in just 24 hours.

The theme for this year's extravaganza was Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty, a tribute to the influential German designer who oversaw top fashion houses such as Patou, Chloe, Fendi and Chanel.

Lagerfeld died in February 2019, leaving behind a controversial legacy of groundbreaking design and derogatory comments about fat people, sexual assault survivors, women, immigrants as well as the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community, among others.

The announcement of the 2023 Met Gala theme last September thus drew much criticism online, not only from fans but also from well-known personalities such as British actress and activist Jameela Jamil who slammed the event organisers for honouring Lagerfeld.

After the fans' displeasure, the unexpected appearance of the pest — commonly associated with filth and decay — at the very event honouring Lagerfeld was all too timely.

One Twitter user cooed: "Aww, (it's) Karl Lagerfeld reincarnated."

On TikTok, user "tzphile" dubbed the cockroach "Karl Lagerfeld in his final form" on a fan-made video. Posted on Tuesday afternoon, the video has already earned 2.7 million views.

The bug also prompted references to fictional characters from popular media, such as cockroach companion Hal from Disney's 2008 animated film Wall-E, as well as Pheromosa, a Bug/Fighting-type Pokemon introduced in Generation VII of the video game series.

As for what happened after the red carpet walk, Variety reported "with deep sadness" just half an hour after its initial tweet that someone had stepped on the rising fashion icon. RIP, "Ms Roach".