What is I Know That Took Restraint?

It's an exploitable image of Sakuya Shirase from iDOLM@STER Shiny Colors sitting in a car and thanking her partner for not saying a piece of internet slang in front of her parents.

Where did I Know That Took Restraint come from?

Tumblr user roconize drew the original two-panel image on July 9th, 2021, with the caption about her dad confusing geckos and iguanas.

What does I Know That Took Restraint mean?

The caption plays on the gap between an earnest girlfriend compliment and the silly fact that what she's praising is her partner not saying "based," "cringe" or "poggers" during a family dinner.

How do you use I Know That Took Restraint?

People swap the slang term for any phrase that would embarrass them in front of parents, such as Dungeons and Dragons jargon like "I have darkvision" or the anime reaction cry Uohhhhhhhhh! 😭.

Is I Know That Took Restraint still popular?

The template was a 2021 hit on Reddit, Tumblr and iFunny and kept getting remixed on Twitter and Funnyjunk into 2022.

I Know That Took Restraint

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Published November 4, 2026

Tumblr user roconize drew a girlfriend in a passenger seat thanking her partner for not correcting her dad about geckos in July 2021, and the sincere wholesome format quickly flipped into a vehicle for internet slang jokes. By August, the image showed Sakuya Shirase from iDOLM@STER Shiny Colors praising her boyfriend for not saying "based," "cringe" or "poggers" at a family dinner.

exploitable templates slang memes anime manga tumblr memes dialogue edit memes

Overview

I Know That Took Restraint, also known as Thanks for Not Saying X in Front of My Parents, is an exploitable image of an anime girlfriend sitting in a car and thanking her partner for self-censoring something on a family date3. The character shown is Sakuya Shirase from iDOLM@STER Shiny Colors, and the swap-in "X" is almost always a piece of internet slang the poster finds embarrassing, such as "based," "cringe" or "poggers"1.

Part of the joke is the mismatch between the earnest tone of the drawing and the trivial thing being praised. Early edits also pointed the format at niche fandom vocabulary, with versions covering Dungeons and Dragons terms like "I have darkvision"2 and the horny anime reaction cry "Uohhhhhhhhh! 😭"4. Fan artists later redrew the scene to put different passengers in the car, including Pink Guy from Filthy Frank and the iDOLM@STER character Mamimi Tanaka5.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Tumblr (source art) / Reddit (viral spread)

Creator

roconize

Date

2021

On July 9th, 2021, Tumblr user roconize posted the source art: two panels of Sakuya Shirase smiling in a car and saying, "Thanks for not correcting my dad at dinner when he confused geckos and iguanas. I know it took restraint." The post picked up over 15,700 notes3. The original joke was sincere and had nothing to do with internet slang.

The slang recut arrived about six weeks later. On August 23rd, 2021, iFunny user AniMexican reposted a voiceover version of the edit credited to a user named lolijesus1. A day after that, on August 24th, a since-deleted Redditor posted the still image to /r/teenagers with the caption "Thanks for not saying 'based', 'cringe' and 'poggers' in front of my parents. I know that took a lot of restraint," and that post pulled roughly 19,900 upvotes over the next nine months3.

How It Spread

The template moved fast across 4chan, Reddit and Tumblr in late August 2021. On August 25th, an anonymous poster on /b/ swapped the slang line for "Uohhhhhhhhh! 😭," an onomatopoeia tied to lolicon-adjacent anime art4. An iFunny user named Frisk is credited as the likely creator of that same Uohhhhhhhhh edit, which earned over 600 smiles1. Two days later, Redditor fazeflak replaced Sakuya with Pink Guy from the Filthy Frank series in a /r/memes post that reached roughly 32,900 upvotes6.

Fandom-specific versions followed through September. Redditor Scruffpants posted a Dungeons and Dragons riff to /r/dndmemes on September 10th, 2021, thanking a partner for not saying "I have darkvision" at the table, and it hit about 3,000 upvotes3. That same image was reblogged on September 28th by Tumblr user lexingt0n, where catgirlforeskin joined the thread with a redraw showing Mamimi Tanaka in the passenger seat looking out the window, together earning around 14,200 notes5.

Iterations kept appearing on Twitter and Funnyjunk into 20227 8, and the voiceover side of the template stayed alive on YouTube, including a November 6th, 2021 video from YouTuber clairetta that drew about 1,000 views1.

Timeline

2021-07-09

Tumblr user roconize posts the original Sakuya Shirase car drawing with the gecko and iguana line.

2021-08-23

IFunny user AniMexican reposts a lolijesus voiceover video using the image.

2021-08-24

A /r/teenagers Redditor posts the "based, cringe and poggers" caption, racking up about 19,900 upvotes.

2021-08-25

A 4chan /b/ anon and iFunny user Frisk recut the image with Uohhhhhhhhh! 😭.

2021-08-27

Redditor fazeflak replaces the girlfriend with Pink Guy on /r/memes.

2021-09-10