Dr Disrespect: The streamer
For some gamers, streaming their game play live on platforms like Twitch or YouTube can generate a livelihood and then some. For former DII basketball player Herschel Beahm IV, donning a mullet wig, sunglasses, and a combination of red and black clothes is the golden ticket.
Transformed thus into feared gamer Dr Disrespect, his alter ego sets to work shooting up other characters and achieving goals in games like Call of Duty, racking up millions in sponsorships and followers in the process.
Despite some personal hiccups, including an incident where he illegally livestreamed from inside the men’s bathroom at the E3 expo in Los Angeles, a bout of infidelity to his wife, and eventually getting kicked off of Twitch for murky reasons, Dr Disrespect remained at the top of his game—now exclusively on YouTube.
“Violence, speed, momentum” is Dr Disrespect’s catchphrase, and it captures something essential about his character’s persona: stop at nothing to win. Beahm’s alter ego is arrogant and cocky. For Dr Disrespect, showing up in an all-black Lamborghini Aventador to a gaming expo and emerging in costume is all part of the mystique.
And for days that he doesn’t want to go for the Batman vibe, Dr Disrespect could take a spin in his red Lamborghini Diablo VT. A late ‘90s offering from the Italian company, it nearly qualifies as vintage at this point. This Lambo was a showstopper, but it was to suffer a sad fate.
Two incidents don’t necessarily make a pattern, but it must be said: this wasn’t Dr Disrespect’s first rodeo. A year earlier, a suspicious video emerged. Dr Disrespect, resplendent in his gaming outfit, was driving his Diablo and making his signature sarcastic remarks for the camera, when suddenly he’s stopped short by another car, and we hear a crash. The title of the video is “Dr. Disrespect Dies in a Car Crash.”
Sharp-eyed readers will notice the errant period in this version of “Dr,” perhaps the first red flag. Others with digital graphic design experience will quickly see that the crash itself is clearly CGI. So the frantic tweets that flooded the internet after the video was released were premature: Dr Disrespect was alive and well, and so was his Diablo.
But a year later, an Alpina B7 would usurp this Lambo’s throne. We still don’t know if it died of natural causes, or if something more nefarious was afoot. All we know for sure—there was certainly violence, speed, and momentum.