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.