Throughout 2025, a meme about Republican U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson circulated online purporting that the politician once said he was “abstinence partners” with his son.
The meme circulated on social media platforms like X (archived), Instagram (archived) and Facebook in particular (archived, archived, archived), with one user adding, “I knew he was weird, but this is unbelievable.”
The meme included an image of Johnson and text that read:
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson admits that he and his son monitor one another’s urination habits to prevent each other from the “temptation of the sin of masturbation.” He claims they go as far as holding each other’s genitals while urinating to avoid being “tempted by the sins of their own flesh” as each other’s “abstinence partners.”
Snopes was unable to find any evidence that Johnson made any such public statements about he and his son monitoring “one another’s urination habits,” “holding each other’s genitals,” or being “abstinence partners” in an effort to curb masturbation.
We reached out to Johnson’s office for comment and will update this article if we receive a response.
The claim alleged in the meme appeared to be referencing a story from early November 2023 that was widely reported following Johnson’s election as speaker of the House in late October 2023. On Oct. 31, 2023, a clip resurfaced on X (archived) from an event titled “War on Technology,” held Oct. 23, 2022, at Cypress Baptist Church in Benton, Louisiana.
“Don’t miss this powerful parent workshop where you will gain all the tools and practical knowledge needed to protect your child,” read a statement on the event’s Facebook page (archived). “There is a war waging for your child’s heart and mind and we want to help you win! This event is open to the community so spread the word and make sure to join us!” Among the listed guests was “Congressman Mike Johnson.”
In the resurfaced clip, Johnson spoke to the moderator about his family use of the app Covenant Eyes in order to monitor what each of them is viewing on the internet.
Johnson said:
It scans all the activity on your phone, or your devices, your laptop, what have you; we do all of it … It sends a report to your accountability partner. My accountability partner right now is Jack, my son. He’s 17. So he and I get a report about all the things that are on our phones, all of our devices, once a week. If anything objectionable comes up, your accountability partner gets an immediate notice. I’m proud to tell ya, my son has got a clean slate.
Johnson did not mention pornography explicitly in the clip, but Covenant Eyes described its app as “the relationship-first solution for overcoming pornography and reclaiming your life,” according to its official website. The site also claims a new user would be “joining over 1.7 million people we’ve helped overcome porn” and offers a variety of resources related to “quitting porn.”
Media outlets covered the story at length at the time, including Rolling Stone, Raw Story, The Guardian, The Los Angeles Times, Vanity Fair, Forbes and a segment on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.”
It was unclear whether the meme in question originated as a satirical take on this particular news item or was intended as deliberately misleading fake news, but a reverse-image search on Google revealed the meme in circulation as early as February 2024.
For further reading on Johnson, Snopes previously reported he called nude cyclists in Portland the “most threatening thing” he’s seen and investigated claims that he was dean of a law school that never opened.
Sources
171K Views · 9.9K Reactions | If Mike Johnson Wants to Know If His Kid Is Masturbating, He Should Do It the Old Fashioned Way: See If His Sock Shatters like an Icicle | The Daily Show. www.facebook.com, https://www.facebook.com/reel/1043361847007685/. Accessed 30 Oct. 2025.
Congressman Mike Johnson Elected Speaker of the House | House.Gov. https://www.house.gov/feature-stories/2023-10-25-new-speaker-of-the-house. Accessed 30 Oct. 2025.
Esposito, Joey. “Did Speaker Mike Johnson Call Nude Cyclists in Portland ‘most Threatening Thing’ He’s Seen?” Snopes, 16 Oct. 2025, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/mike-johnson-portland-bike-ride/.
———. “Mike Johnson Was Dean of Law School That Never Opened.” Snopes, 10 Oct. 2025, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/mike-johnson-law-school-dean/.
Gabbatt, Adam. “Mike Johnson Says in Resurfaced Video He Uses App That Helps People ‘Quit Porn.'” The Guardian, 6 Nov. 2023. US News. The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/06/speaker-mike-johnson-covenant-eyes-app-quitting-porn.
Kreps, Daniel. “Mike Johnson Admits He and His Son Monitor Each Other’s Porn Intake in Resurfaced Video.” Rolling Stone, 5 Nov. 2023, https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/mike-johnson-son-monitor-porn-intake-covenant-eyes-1234870634/.
Levin, Bess. “Mike Johnson Said He and His Son Monitor Each Other’s Porn Usage, and Yeah, It’s Exactly as Weird as It Sounds.” Vanity Fair, 6 Nov. 2023, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/11/mike-johnson-covenant-eyes.
Mike Johnson Tries to Scrub Social Media of Adult Content Monitor He Shared with His Son – Raw Story. https://www.rawstory.com/mike-johnson-content-monitor/. Accessed 30 Oct. 2025.
“Opinion: House Speaker Johnson Is a MAGA Acolyte, as Expected. But He’s Also a Little Weird.” Los Angeles Times, 8 Nov. 2023, https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-11-08/pornography-house-speaker-mike-johnson-accountability-covenant-eyes.
“Screen Accountability™.” Covenant Eyes, https://www.covenanteyes.com/. Accessed 30 Oct. 2025.
