Dr Disrespect has issues an apology for the events which led to his Twitch ban at E3 2019.
Dr Disrespect, real name Herschel “Guy” Beahm, is one of the best know streamers on Twitch. His Dr Disrespect personality is loud, confident in his abilities, and for some reason wears a wig and sunglasses all the time. During E3 2019, he ended up livestreaming from an E3 bathroom, and event that got him kicked out of the Expo, and banned from Twitch. After about two weeks, he was back, but he has issued an apology for the events that got him banned in the first place.
I’d like to talk about Dr Disrespect’s Twitch ban from E3.
This was my first IRL stream as the Doc and if it’s not obvious by now, one of the things I try to stay true with is authenticity. Real life personas are so difficult to pull off, especially in today’s society. Doc is edgy, highly opinionated, cocky, etc. and that certainly adds to the difficulty in staying authentic without offending anyone on a deeper, personal level. When we were walking around filming at E3, we clearly weren’t thinking about the laws/repercussions of filming in the bathroom because honestly, it wasn’t in our mind frame at the time. We were sort of ‘all in’ with the Doc livestream experience and capturing the E3 event through the character. We were so into the E3 IRL journey that we became a little blind in what’s ok and what’s not ok. We had no ill intentions and I feel that was pretty obvious if you watched the entire thing. We wanted to capture an adventure, unfortunately we took that adventure into the wrongs areas unaware of the legalities surrounding it. On behalf of the Dr Disrespect brand, I apologize for this.
I’ve sat back and absorbed a lot of opinions on the incident and the aftermath. I think those that have followed me for years outside of the character, even before Twitch, know what kind of person I am. I have an incredible support system from family, friends, business partners, community and following. I’m very lucky to be considered an influential person in this entertainment space. Believe me, I don’t take it for granted. We are working on a lot of things (that take time) that will hopefully continue to elevate the brand and gaming entertainment as a whole into the main stream space. I have a ruthless passion for creativity, for entertaining people, making people laugh, growing new tools and tech etc. This incident was a step back, but like anything, we learn, become stronger, and move forward. If you follow the brand or myself, I hope you continue to stay with me on this vision.
Being frank, this is what happens when you get amateur creators doing things for the first time, things and are simply not thought about, and mistakes are made. Comfort in one area, in this case live streaming, leads to too much confidence in others. Dr Disrespect is undoubtedly a skilled streamer, but live production in public is a whole different kettle of fish. By and large the apology reads like just about any other generic apology that people make when they mess up, including the general promise to do better in the future.
Only time will tell.
