How did Dr DisRespect get his name? Tracing origins of the streamer's iconic username

Dr DisRespect is one of the most popular streamers of the last decade, having consistently racked up high viewership numbers since his debut in 2015. Famous for his obtrusive and bombastic demeanor on stream, his dark sunglasses,1980s rockstar-styled mullet, and red tactical vest have become iconic symbols of the foul-mouthed Doc.

The YouTuber started his career in 2010 with Call of Duty: Black Ops videos and went on to work for Sledgehammer Studios. He is credited with many maps in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare but quit the gig in 2015 to pursue streaming as a full-time job, amassing a huge following after playing battle royale games on Twitch.

But he is not like any other Warzone streamer, because he never goes out of character, having taken off sunglasses only a couple of times on stream, that too during emergency situations. But how did Herschel "Guy" Beahm IV come up with the name and character of Dr DisRespect? Let's find out.

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"It originated from Halo 2": Looking back at the origin of Dr DisRespect and his name

The former Twitch streamer came up with the character of the doctor, or "Doc" as he is affectionately called, more than 12 years ago as a side project. The video is still up on his channel and is dated January 12, 2010. In the first few minutes of the video, Herschel gives his viewers a rundown of the character before showing some Black Ops footage with commentary.

As Dr DisRespect starts talking, his first few words are directed at the viewer, and his speech gives a nice indication of the type of man he is - A magnanimous and ostentatious character who is insanely proud of his in-game skills and takes every opportunity he gets to mock his opponents.

The almost two-minute-long speech starts with a fiery tone as the streamer speaks in a darkened room, calling out his in-game opponents to inspire them to rise to his level of greatness:

"People got have understand, you've got to attack, attack, attack. But don't get it mistaken. Certain individuals, you don't attack, you run from. I'm talking- if I see you, and believe me I will, I'll put you down quickly. Why don't you get up off the top of your bunk bed, get down, get in front of the TV, and provide a little more serious effort into this game."

In an interview on the H3 podcast from 2017, Dr DisRespect went into further detail about how he came up with the character:

"The doctor actually originated from Halo 2, and it was a voice. I mean, it wasn't a character, it wasn't a visual thing, it was all voice. And because Halo 2 was proximity chat, you know, so you could tell the guy, you know, you're going into the base with the team. You go, 'Look at this guy. I know he's upstairs, I'm gonna pull the flag. There's nothing he could do about it I'm gonna demolish him and guess what he's gonna respond across the map.'"

Basically, trolling Halo 2 opponents where he would disrespect them in proximity chat was the original impetus for the creation of the character. When his performance got many laughs, Dr DisRespect decided to make it a visual thing.

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The Two-Time 1993-1994 back-to-back Blockbuster Video Game Champion did drop his disrespectful attitude towards his fellow competitors when giving his humble speech after accepting the Streamer of the Year 2019 award at the Esports Awards.

That said, Dr DisRespect's bombastic personality has gotten him into numerous controversies, and he was one of the first big creators to get banned from Twitch in 2020.