DR. PHIL IN HOT WATER BECAUSE OF RAPE STATEMENT TWEET THAT WENT OUT TO OVER 1 MILLION PEOPLE

DR. PHIL

For someone so apt to give advice on tough emotional issues, Dr. Phil apparently didn't think before he took to Twitter to pose a question inferring rape on Tuesday.

"If a girl is drunk, is it OK to have sex with her?" a blunt message read. "Reply yes or no to @drphil"

The 62-year-old talk show psychologist, whose full name is Dr. Phil McGraw, often has themes and topics for his upcoming shows tweeted out to fans and followers for input, but this one appeared to spark outrage.

"Dr. Oz was saving lives today and Dr. Phil is trying to hook up with drunk girls," Samir Mezrahi of Buzzfeed wrote.

"If a person is a misogynist, is it ok to just refer to him as 'Dr. Phil' from now on?" another upset tweeter wrote.

The controversial tweet — which appears to reduce rape to a "yes or no" prompt in 140 characters — was taken down almost immediately, but not before it had the chance to spur a Change.org petition.

"I am shocked and appalled by this question," the petition's creator, Carmen Rios, wrote. By Wednesday afternoon her demands, calling for an apology and rape-awareness episode of his show, had netted over 800 signatures.

"Even though he took the tweet down, of course Dr. Phil should admit his error in judgment and apologize," she wrote.

It’s unclear whether McGraw himself, or an intern or PR team handles the Dr. Phil Twitter account, but the misstep has not gone unnoticed.

"He needs to go a step further,” Rios continues in her petition plea. “ I am asking Dr. Phil to produce a show that shines a light on survivors of rape and sexual assault and begin a national conversation about the specifics of consent."

That may have been the intended point, according to a show statement obtained by the Daily News.

"This tweet was intended to invoke discussion leading into a very serious show topic based upon a recent news story," a rep for the "Dr. Phil" show said. "It was a poll question, not a statement or a joke... This was a research post in preparation for a show, not a personal post and Dr. Phil deleted it the second he saw it."

"It was clearly ill-advised," the rep continued. "We sincerely apologize that it suggested anything other than what was intended, data gathering.  As you can imagine, Dr. Phil is very upset that this happened."