Brian Drummond
An altercation occurred on Twitter yesterday between voice actor Brian Drummond and a fan known as 'Mr. Sarcasm.' I thought about opening this article with something more witty to say, but honestly what transpired was so dumb I decided to just cut to the chase. I have plenty of words to say about what happened, so why dance around with poor jokes, right? Anyway...Brian Drummond. I am more than familiar with Drummond's work. Truthfully, he's one of my favorite anime voice actors. Or, he was one of my favorite anime voice actors. After the stunt he pulled that inspired this article, I find it will be difficult to show any fondness for the man outside of his voice acting roles. Some of his credits include Alan from "The Vision of Escaflowne" (Bandai dub), Ryuk in "Death Note," and (most famously) the original voice of Vegeta in "Dragon Ball Z" (before Funimation replaced him with Chris Sabot...a lesser actor in my humble opinion). His full list of credits is all the more impressive, but those are some highlights for me.
Like Laura Bailey and Vic Mignogna, he has the kind of talent that actually makes me look forward to watching the English dub. Like other voice actors he is also on Twitter. Now that I've typed that, you can probably get an idea of where this story is going. Now the aforementioned Mr. Sarcasm makes personalized fan merchandise for voice actors he respects. He has offered these free gifts to several actors...
Instead of shirt power @SilverTalkie went for mug power! pic.twitter.com/PkIG518StZ— Mr. Sarcasm (@timkester91) June 23, 2020
...and many have accepted with what appears to be genuine thankfulness. Sarcasm wanted to make a t-shirt for Drummond with many of the characters actor voices. Drummond appears to have felt that wearing such a shirt would be vain, and turned down the offer. Sarcasm came back and asked if a mug would do instead. Well, the mug was a-okay in Drummond's eyes, so Sarcasm asked for a DM message with an address to send the mug to.
Sadly, things turned south very fast as Drummond decided to (publicly) refuse the gift and make (in my personal opinion) a MAJOR ass of himself by refusing the gift on grounds that he disliked some of the things he read on Mr. Sarcasm's Twitter feed!
Um, dude...what the heck? You have a fan who respects and admires you. He wants to make a very thoughtful (and very cool looking) gift for you. He's not asking anything in return. Do you know how much I would LOVE for someone to make a gift like that for me?! That would be such an honor! And you're response is to publicly shame him?! It's funny that a direct message was brought up, because had Drummond decided to message Sarcasm privately and turn him down...well, that'd still be a douche thing to do, but it would have been a private douche thing to do, and the only way anyone would know is if Sarcasm pulled the equally douche move of sharing the private conversation with the rest of Twitter. However, that's not what happened. Instead, Drummond publicly denied the gift, threw out a few political hashtags, and then (I kid you not) wrote the condescending "what you say has consequences." Like, this wasn't even written with a polite "thanks but no thanks," this was a stern public lecture from a guy who felt he was better than his fan!
My God...Twitter was just one giant mistake overall, wasn't it?!
Alright, let's discuss the hashtags first. Drummond responded with the hashtags #BLM, #BelieveAllWomen, and #TrumpOut2020, so it's pretty obvious what his issues are. He doesn't like that Sarcasm is a Trump supporter (sadly, I know many friendships that has fallen apart because of this very issue, so while this is disappointing it's not surprising). He also is a supporter of Black Lives Matter. That's fine too. Drummond has also gotten the 'believe all women' train, which I take some issue with because women are capable of lying just as much as men are, and I believe in due process (so I suppose my stance is 'believe...but verify'). Going through Mr. Sarcasm's tweets personally though, I did not find anything particularly offensive. Some of the tweets I feel are misguided and there are other things I flat out disagree with, but ultimately these aren't bigoted, racist, sexist tweets, they are simply tweets that express a different opinion.
With all of that said, no, Brian Drummond is not obligated to accept a gift from a fan if he is offended by the tweets. I believe he is being childish, but he is not obligated. But that isn't the problem in and of itself. Granted, there is a problem that Drummond is so smug and full of himself that he demands his fans agree with everything he believes or you are not worthy of being his fan and bestowing gifts upon him (I know some will say this assessment is a stretch, but...it's really not when you stop and think about it), but, again, that's not the main problem. No, the problem is that Drummond thinks so highly of himself, believes his views to be so righteous, that he has no problem being a total asshole and shaming the guy on Twitter. Does he not realize what happens when semi-famous people go after other people on Twitter? When you call someone out and suggest that they are racist, bigoted, and sexist those people get HOUNDED by strangers!
Death threats are usually received even. It's kind of amazing how dangerous Twitter is when you get down to it. This could have all been dealt with privately and without bringing the Twitterverse into this, but Drummond decided to make a spectacle of it and throw this guy to the wolves. Thankfully, it appeared a lot of people saw what was going on and gave Drummond much deserved flak for it. They made videos, wrote articles, and even (the worst of the worst) sent nasty tweets his way. This has resulted in Mr. Sarcasm and Mr. Drummond having a private conversation about what happened. I reached out to Mr. Sarcasm for a comment and he replied with this tweet:
I can comment yes, I’ll gladly say that I think it was a big misunderstanding, & we are sorting things out atm, some VA’s I’ve gotten into spats with, would not reach out, but he followed me back & wants to talk things out.— Mr. Sarcasm (@timkester91) June 25, 2020
Furthermore, he had this to say later on:
Brian & I talked everything out, & I understand now On why he chose not to accept my offer. It was miscommunication on both our parts, & thank you @BrianDrummondVO for talking to me about this & reaching out to me, this gives me hope— Mr. Sarcasm (@timkester91) June 25, 2020
It's great that from Mr. Sarcasms perspective, this was just a misunderstanding. I'm glad that for him this episode is over. However...this is my personal blog, and the few people who do read it read it for my opinion. So what do I feel about this? Personally, I am unsatisfied. I know I'm not the one who was wronged, but hear me out. I don't believe in cancel culture. I don't believe in personal attacks. I believe in respected other people's opinions. When you have a strong disagreement, I believe you talk those differences out with said person, not lead a mob to forcefully change their minds (or have them submit to whatever belief system you subscribe to). I don't believe you are so big as to suggest (whether directly or indirectly) that you and your belief's are more important than the very fans who made you what you are. For the record, I reached out to Brian Drummond for comment before I wrote this article. I have heard nothing back.
I do agree that it is great that he reached out to Mr. Sarcasm privately and appears to have apologized. That is a great first step. The problem is that this became an issue precisely because it wasn't dealt with privately in the first place, but on a public form where any crazy Keyboard Warrior could get involved. From my perspective, Brian Drummond needs to issue a public apology for the misunderstanding, the public shaming, and it would help if he showed some humility and accepted the gift as a public gesture that even if his fans have differences of opinion, he will still view them as human beings who are brought together because they enjoy his work. Alright, maybe that last part is a personal belief of mine, but I do strongly believe that unless he issues that public apology, he is every bit as much of a coward as he's shown himself to be.
Who knows why this was ultimately an issue for him. Personally, I believe he was pressured by Keyboard Warriors who didn't like what Mr. Sarcasm was tweeting and retweeting, and thus pressured him to publicly make a spectacle of this poor man. I have no proof, it's just a theory I have. I've seen it on Twitter before and I'm sure I'll see it again. I know I certainly won't respect the man again until he can own his mistake like a man and issue that public apology. After that...hey, we're cool. Again, I DON'T believe in cancel culture! But I do believe in human respect and basic manners, of which Brian Drummond showed a woeful lack of both virtues. Maybe that's expecting too much. Twitter has shown many anime voice actors to be vain and selfish people, with ego's so big the Roadrunner wouldn't be able to run around them. I find the way they treat their fans disgusting. This isn't exactly the worst example I've seen, but it IS the most pitiful! However, this could also be a learning moment. One that shows we all make mistakes and are all capable of forgiveness. Right now the ball is in Brian Drummonds court to move the conversation forward. Let's see if he follows through.
UPDATE: 6/26/2020
As mentioned earlier in the article I mentioned that I reached out to Brian Drummond for a comment on this story. This is his response:
I'm glad we can all talk to one another like mature adults, right?
Your Comic Book Guy - Kevin
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