Guy “Dr Disrespect” Beahm is promoting his apparent return months after going offline following a “sexting” controversy around his original 2020 Twitch ban. He even tried to preempt the pedophile jokes that now routinely flood the mentions under his social media posts. “WHeRe’s He CoMinG from, Epstein iSlAnd?” the disgraced streamer tweeted on Thursday.
Beahm announced his return, which he’d been teasing with cryptic messages for some time, with a short video that pointed toward some sort of event on September 6. If the streamer goes live on YouTube or another video streaming platform tomorrow, it will be the first time he’s addressed his audience live since admitting to the allegations against him that came to light in June.
He earned millions of followers playing PUBG and Warzone while in the persona of an ‘80s action movie anti-hero, which culminated in him winning the vote for Trending Gamer of the year at the 2017 Game Awards. Despite multiple controversies and an at the time mysterious ban from Twitch, Beahm’s popularity continued on YouTube.
Earlier this summer, however, a former Twitch employee publicly accused the streamer of getting banned for sending inappropriate messages to a minor on the platform. The claim was corroborated by follow-up reporting from The Verge, Bloomberg, and Rolling Stone, which eventually resulted in Beahm addressing the allegations in a long statement in which he admitted to conversations that leaned “inappropriate” with an underage user, but claimed that nothing illegal had happened.
Beahm has since deleted that statement as his apparent return to streaming gets closer, and largely dismissed ongoing criticism of his past behavior, as he did today when trying to preempt people dunking on him. “WHeRe’s He CoMinG from, Epstein iSlAnd?” he wrote. “iTs a pDf nOt a DoC hE BloCkEd mE, leT Me TaKe a ScReEnsHot aNd PosT.”
While some Dr Disrespect fans continue to defend him, his corporate partners have all cut ties, including PC gaming headset sponsors and the video game studio he seemingly co-founded, which recently tried to distance itself from his involvement. And while YouTube did not ban his channel, it did demonetize it, making it impossible for Beahm to continue earning revenue from his massive following on the Google-owned platform.
If Beahm does return to streaming in some form, it won’t be the first time he’s tried to mount a comeback in the face of controversy. After admitting to cheating on his wife in 2017, a return stream netted over 300,000 concurrent viewers.
