SAN DIEGO — Video game streamer Herschel Beahm IV, better known as Dr Disrespect, refuted accusations that he had sent graphic messages to an underaged Twitch user, claiming that they were actually an avatar for a magical beast from a time before human memory.
“Is it true that I engaged in a conversation with an ancient being temporarily taking on the corporeal form of an underaged schoolgirl? The answer is yes,” said Beahm in a statement released on X, formerly Twitter. “Was this conversation with an actual minor? The answer is absolutely not. It was actually a thousand-year-old dragon, so my conduct is beyond reproach. I didn’t technically do anything illegal, and if anything, the dragon tempted me into being inappropriate.”
Multiple Twitch employees took issue with Beahm’s framing of the incident.
“It’s really beside the point,” said Jeffrey Harper, who worked in Twitch’s strategic partnerships department in 2020. “Sure, it’s possible that any of our users are actually fantasy creatures who have, for strange reasons known only to themselves, decided to take the form of teenage girls. We have no way of knowing that. All we have is the information listed on their profiles, but hey, that’s also the only information that Dr Disrespect had, too. For some reason, he found that persona attractive enough to send this user graphic messages and attempt to arrange a meetup. From the content of the messages, it seems unlikely that his use of the word ‘mount’ referred to taking flight on the back of a dragon.”
Conrad St. George, an expert on mythical creatures, said that Beahm’s account does not add up.
“Dragons, famously, want to kidnap young maidens and hold them captive,” said St. George. “I don’t want to paint with a broad brush here, but it seems very unlikely to me that a dragon would take on the identity of their primary prey. I mean, it could be a ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’-type situation, but I can’t imagine that any dragon would want to attract Dr Disrespect. He seems like he’d taste weird. No, it’s much more likely that he’s just a creep.”
At press time, Beahm edited his statement to change the phrase, “thousand-year-old dragon,” to read, “individual.”
