The Shady Side Of Dr Disrespect
If there's going to be a streamer with a shady side, it's going to be Dr Disrespect. After all, how many other entertainers on Twitch have managed to stir up so much controversy? How many have been warned by the platform and even suspended from it at one point, only to sign a big exclusivity deal later on? How many have openly admitted to some shortcomings, showed no remorse at all for others, and still lived on as the "face" of the biggest streaming service?
How many have broken the law and shared screen time with The Undertaker, all within the course of a year?
The road traveled by one Guy Beahm has been interesting, to say the least. The character he's created has undoubtedly become one of the biggest names in streaming, and it's possible gamers will still be talking about Dr Disrespect long after he's hung up the mullet. His many successes haven't come without a plethora of mistakes, however.
Here's a look at the shady side of Dr Disrespect, a persona so closely attached to the man behind it that it's difficult to separate the two.
Dr Disrespect streamed from a public bathroom at E3
Whether you're a follower of Dr Disrespect or you've never heard of the man in your life, you're likely familiar with at least one of his biggest controversies. It stemmed from an incident at E3 2019, where the popular Twitch streamer crossed the line in terms of not only what he was broadcasting, but where he was broadcasting from.
For one reason or another, the Doc thought it would be entertaining to capture some footage inside a public bathroom at the event. While this might have been kosher had Dr Disrespect gained permission beforehand, and had the bathroom been cleared out, he did no such thing. Instead, the Doc went barreling in with his camera operator. This was a gross violation of privacy for others in the space. On top of that, Dr Disrespect was actually breaking California state law.
The backlash was immediate. The body that runs E3 — the Entertainment Software Association — terminated Dr Disrespect's access to the event. Twitch also responded to the infraction by suspending the streamer for two weeks. The Doc later issued an apology "on behalf of the Dr Disrespect brand," which some found less than satisfying. Still, the incident may at least have set an example for everyone else. There probably won't be any other bathroom streams in the future.
Dr Disrespect went after gaming journalist Jason Schreier
Like many other video game websites, Kotaku covered the infamous Dr Disrespect bathroom stream, cluing readers in on what the Doc did and what happened afterward. Because Dr Disrespect is such a big figure in gaming, you can likely understand why the site thought the story was important. There wasn't anything really untoward about Kotaku's article; the author simply described the incident and relayed key facts about it. For unknown reasons, however, Dr Disrespect targeted this particular piece and went after it.
Strangely, Dr Disrespect didn't even insult the journalist who wrote the article, Nathan Grayson. The Doc fired off a tweet showing a zoomed-in photo of Jason Schreier, who at the time also worked for Kotaku. He then wrote, "Hey guys, Jason Schrierer [sic] here, editor for Kotaku. Analytics shows that Kotaku is on the uprise, averageing 3-5 likes per tweet compared to 1-3 likes 1 year ago. I also wrote a book about video games, I don't want to brag but it's a favorite here at the offices. I hate myself."
Schreier, to his credit, at least took the tweet in stride. "Hey man like I said, I'd be happy to chat anytime," Schreier responded, adding, "if it makes you feel more comfortable I can Skype from the bathroom."
Dr Disrespect was accused of mislabeling his streams
Back when Riot Games' Valorant was a brand new thing and still in closed beta, players from all over were dying to get access to it. Some Twitch streamers were given beta keys to hand out to audience members and, as a result, their channels gained a lot of extra viewers. Many Twitch channels added the term "drops" to their titles to let viewers know they had keys, and they were giving them out to those present. All was fine with the world.
Or it was, anyway, until people found Dr Disrespect using that same term — "drops" — in his stream titles. The Doc was not giving out keys to Valorant at all, but was seemingly using the title as clickbait to pull in some new viewers. As you can imagine, this caused a bit of a dust-up.
Some claimed Dr Disrespect was banning viewers in the chat who called him out on his tactics. Other streamers — like Travis Gafford, for example — publicly took the Doc to task over his misleading titles. This turned out to be an instance where Dr Disrespect apparently knew what he was doing and just didn't care. In fact, when addressing the controversy later, Dr Disrespect stated, "I don't give a f**k."
Dr Disrespect made some controversial coronavirus remarks
Dr Disrespect has immense reach and an audience susceptible to influence, and in that regard, he's not unlike any other famous person. The Doc may have failed to take that into account, however, when he decided to dish on how he felt about the coronavirus. It's one thing to play a character. It's another to realize the mullet and shades you don can't turn everything into a joke.
The Doc started out by seemingly siding with Elon Musk, who at one point was publicly advocating for the United States to reopen, despite the still-raging pandemic. Further, Dr Disrespect lent a platform to a fringe conspiracy theory that 5G wireless towers were the cause of the coronavirus.
Several prominent voices called out the Doc for what they believed to be irresponsible behavior, including industry analyst Daniel Ahmad and Kotaku writer Nathan Grayson. What resulted, however, was pretty expected: Dr Disrespect suffered no consequences and offered up no apology. Video of the moment was deleted, at least, so maybe that's something?
Dr Disrespect admitted to cheating on his wife
There are a few instances when Guy Beahm has pulled the plug on the Dr Disrespect shtick and offered a full-on apology. They've come rarely, but these incidents are on record. One such apology came in late 2017, when a teary-eyed Beahm took to his stream without the Dr Disrespect getup to speak frankly to his fans. The resulting admission was a hard-to-come-by glimpse at the man behind the shades. It was also his lowest moment.
The Doc broke the news he'd been cheating on his wife, who was known on-stream as "Mrs Assassin" and "Nurse Disrespect." He then stated he was going to "take time off" to try and put things back together, and offered apologies to his sponsors, his viewers, and Twitch. Dr Disrespect was not a streamer known for breaking character, so word quickly spread across the internet as many shared his confession on social media. For a moment in time, the Doc didn't exist — Guy Beahm did and he was owning up to the fact that he messed up and had to fix things.
Whatever sympathy this might have engendered from those who didn't like Dr Disrespect may have faded later on after he returned, seemingly not missing a beat. This chapter of the Doc's life did show, however, that there are some places the character just can't go.
Dr Disrespect has been accused of racism
Dr Disrespect the character is abrasive. He's loud. He's aggressive. Swear words are a feature, not a bug. Trash talk comes about as naturally as any other form of communication. If you imagine Dr Disrespect as the worst person you can hear in voice chat during Call of Duty, you're not going big enough. He's more like that person mixed with that relative of yours who doesn't have a filter and just says whatever comes to mind. Yes, the one who will do a mock Asian accent in a public place and not see anything wrong with it.
Wait — Dr Disrespect has done the accent thing? Oh yes, he has. The Doc has most definitely been called out on this behavior in the past. Musician Jimmy Wong has gone to great lengths to point out how often the streamer has done this. There is even documentation on YouTube. As Wong stated, this isn't really the kind of thing you want kids to see. "They learn their mannerisms. They copy them. And they perpetuate them between friends, at school, and at others," he said.
Dr Disrespect's response, according to PC Gamer? He has friends from a number of different backgrounds, and his wife comes "all the way from the small island of Malamawi." So, apparently that's a valid excuse. It was for Twitch, anyway.
Dr Disrespect roasted a viewer and told them to quit streaming
Streaming is tough, especially when you're a newcomer. Fortunately, most full-time streamers today have been there. They started out spamming all of their friends to watch. They slowly grew to entertaining an audience of dozens. They eventually ramped it up enough where they could sustain themselves with only donations and subscriptions. A lucky few even got past that point, becoming the Ninjas, the Pokimanes, and yes, even the Dr Disrespects of the world.
Many full-timers go out of their way to encourage others who want to chase the dream. The character of Dr Disrespect, though, can't really allow for that because of what he is. He's the best. He's a two-time champion of a Blockbuster video game tournament. He's a guy who thrives on competition, and will ridicule those he perceives as competitors.
When one viewer of the Doc's stream came along to plug their own channel, Dr Disrespect turned on them. The viewer in question went by the name of RCA, and the Doc really laid into them. "Let's check out your YouTube channel RCA, huh?" the Doc said. "[...] eleven views, four views, five views. Quit. Quit." Dr Disrespect went on. "Get off social media, get off Twitch," he said. "Quit. It's not working. I get it, you're trying and that's fine. But stop."
Talk about crushing someone's dream.
Dr Disrespect insults others, but doesn't handle jokes very well himself
There's a whole lot to find fascinating about Dr Disrespect, but none may be more entertaining to his detractors than his reaction to being the butt of the joke. The Doc is famous for hurling insults at everyone, after all. You'd think someone with a penchant for making fun of others could take some heat every now and again. But the biggest example of a joke pointed right at Dr Disrespect is one he apparently had wiped out.
It all started with something seemingly innocent on a Forsen stream. A kind viewer decided to make a donation to Forsen with the text "D Omegalul C" — spelling out D-O-C — and the text-to-speech voice read it as "Omegalul CD." Forsen's community went wild with it, as communities are wont to do. It wasn't long before an emote was born, with an off-kilter-looking Dr Disrespect sporting CDs for shades.
The emote caught fire right around the time the Doc admitted to cheating on his wife, and after he came back, the graphic was a constant presence in his chat. In a twist, Dr Disrespect seemed to misconstrue the meaning of the emote as though it was taking a shot at him for his affairs. But that doesn't appear to have been the intention. After a tweet from Dr Disrespect complained about the emote, it inexplicably vanished from Twitch the next day. It was later clarified to have been removed because it was "harassment."
Dr Disrespect was banned from Twitch
On June 26, 2020, the streaming world was rocked by a mystery that remains unsolved when Dr Disrespect's Twitch channel seemingly vanished without a trace. Some intrepid sleuthing led fans to discover the streamer had once again been banned from the platform. But why? That's still a question neither Dr Disrespect or Twitch seem interested in answering.
In a since-deleted tweet published on GameSpot, fellow Twitch streamer ShannonZKiller wrote, "From my own sources: Doc is indeed done, and not just on Twitch. I know why and cannot say. But this is serious." Esports consultant Rod Breslau also weighed in on Twitter, adding he heard "from credible sources" about why the ban happened, but chose not to elaborate because of "the importance and sensitivity around the subject." These two statements suggest the reason for the ban is no laughing matter.
Dr Disrespect has since spoken about his removal from Twitch on multiple occasions, however, he insists the company has yet to provide the reasoning behind its decision. He doubled down on this during his Aug. 7 YouTube debut, ending his month and a half streaming hiatus. According to the Doc, the ban came as a shock to him and his wife, Mrs Assassin. He also derided what he sees as the "cockroach approach" of community members "anxious for an answer" regarding what prompted his ban. As the Two Time tells it, those who do not blindly support his return to streaming can only have bad intentions.