During his stream on Monday night, June 24, Dr Disrespect announced that he’s taking a break from streaming. The decision seemed impulsive and took his fans by surprise, but there’s more to this story than meets the eye
Dr Disrespect, real name Herschel Beahm, is one of the most successful gaming streamers ever. His larger-than-life personality has led to him amassing a sizable following of devoted fans since he began streaming in 2015.
Yesterday, Beahm admitted on stream that he’d been “feeling burnt out” for a long time, “I’m exhausted of being in front of the camera, I’m exhausted of being on socials.” He didn’t give much more in the way of details, nor did he say when, or if he would be back, but burnout is a real issue for some people so many accepted his reason for stepping back without questioning it.
Beahm did hint at “negative energy” that might have informed his decision, but if you haven’t been keeping up to date on all the Dr Disrespect drama you might not know what he was referring to. You see, many former fans and casual observers have been a bit more skeptical regarding his sudden decision to quit. One individual on X suggested that there may be a more serious reason behind Beahm taking a hiatus.
translation: my lawyers are telling me to stop streaming
— Lit Benny (@LitBenny) June 24, 2024
What’s the deal with Dr. Disrespect?
So is Herschel Beahm really stepping back because he’s tired or what? Well, his decision to quit is very suspiciously timed to say the least. First of all, two former Twitch employees came forward to make some serious allegations against the streamer. Then, the game studio known as the Midnight Society, whom Beahm co-founded announced on X that they would be “terminating” their relationship with him. But why is all of this happening? What did Beahm do that led to this avalanche?
Why have people turned on Dr. Disrespect?
If you’ve been an avid viewer of gaming live streams for a while then you might remember that in 2020, the good doctor was permanently banned by Twitch without any explanation as to why. It was a huge deal at the time as he was one of the platform’s biggest streamers with around 4 million followers. On top of that, he had just signed a seven-figure two-year contract with Twitch.
A year after his ban Beahm announced that he knew the reason for his Twitch ban but didn’t share the information with his fans. He announced he would be suing Twitch for monetary damages and on March 10, 2022 he posted a picture of a letter that read “I have resolved my legal dispute with Twitch. No party admits to any wrongdoing.” In a follow-up tweet he claimed he wouldn’t be returning to Twitch.
The reason for the Twitch ban exposed
So, let’s go back to those former Twitch employees and what they said. One of the employees, who wished to remain anonymous, spoke to The Verge to shed some light on the reason behind Beahm’s 2020 ban 0. According to the individual, the streamer had used Twitch’s old messaging system, known as ‘Whisper’ to message a minor and try to arrange a meet-up at TwitchCon.
Cody Connors, another former Twitch employee who worked in the strategic partnerships team, seemingly corroborated the story in a post to X on June 22. Cody claimed that he was “sexting a minor” and planning to meet her. He doesn’t mention Beahm by name, but it’s pretty clear who he’s talking about.
It’s important to note that at this point, it’s all mostly hearsay. The people making these allegations haven’t provided any proof yet, but when you put everything together, it doesn’t look good for Dr Disrespect, especially after the Midnight Society decided to drop him. Many have jumped in to defend him, with fans pointing to a distinct lack of receipts and others citing the age-old “innocent until proven guilty.”
Beahm himself also addressed the situation on the 22nd, posting to X he claimed that he couldn’t say much due to “legal obligations from the settlement with Twitch.” However, he maintained that he “didn’t do anything wrong” and that “no wrongdoing was found.” A user on Reddit noted how the answer seemed like a very weaselly denial.
Regardless, Dr Disrespect is stepping back and it looks like it will be radio silence from him for now. In the meantime, we can only hope to get some more answers regarding what happened back in 2020 so that we can stop all the speculation.