Steve Harvey slammed for his response to wife's 'ignorant' comment

Steve Harvey (Reuters)

Steve Harvey is in hot water for jumping to his wife's defense on Instagram.

Harvey's wife, Marjorie, said during a cooking video: "I'm sitting here arguing with my husband, 'cause clearly he thinks I'm retarded [and] I don't know how to cut a beet."

Harvey chimed in, "Well, it's not that you don't know how to cut it. You're just going to cut yourself."

The couple's candid cooking video sparked immediate backlash from users who took offense at Marjorie's use of the word "retarded."

"What you trippin bout ... it's a word ain't it?"

— Steve Harvey

"Why is this funny? Any intelligent person knows that saying 'ret@rd' is considered derogatory and offensive to some," one Instagram user fired back. "Regardless if he 'don’t play about you' be smart about things that comes out of your mouth."

"I see that a lot of people have ... said that there’s nothing wrong with what you said. Unfortunately, that’s not true," another user argued. "There are people like me, my family, my daughter who has Down syndrome, who are all hurt by the implication you made. By using the R word in that way, it infers that people with cognitive disabilities are less than or dumb. Please consider taking the time to ... reconsider using a word that hurts so many."

Marjorie's post got flooded with thousands of comments, with many slamming her for being "ignorant," and Harvey stepped in to defend his "better half."

"What you trippin bout cause my wife said the word retarded .... it's a word ain't it?" Harvey commented on the post, which had accumulated more than 413,000 views as of Thursday afternoon.

He continued, "She ain’t talking bout nobody but herself to me … What she was doing was just that and she ain’t saying it bout nobodies baby… I don’t ever comment but [damn] is you just looking for something to be pissed off about cause we ain’t… and I wrote it retarded. NAH!!”

The snarky comment sparked an uproar -- with Instagram users expressing disappointment at Harvey's unapologetic response.

"Just goes to show how irresponsible and ignorant you are," one Instagram user tagged Harvey in a comment. "Think before you speak."

"When 'retard' is used as a synonym for stupid or dumb by people without disabilities it reinforces stereotypes that a person with intellectual disabilities is some how lesser," another explained.

However, some praised the TV personality for defending "his queen" and advised critics of the couple to not be "overly sensitive."

"So sick of the overly sensitive crowd. Just ignore them. The Harveys are good people," one Instagram user wrote.

"People are too sensitive. We can’t ban all the words people!" another commented.

Marjorie appears to have moved on from the discussion, posting several other videos and pictures on her account this week.