He took down Snooki — next up, Osama bin Laden.

Brad Ferro, who unleashed the shot heard round the world when he decked the diminutive star of MTV’s reality smash “Jersey Shore” in August 2009, has had so much trouble finding a job that he’s joined the Army.

“My son made them famous,” the Long Island man’s outraged dad, Dan, told The Post, referring to the show and its cast. “They made a lot of money off of him, and I think they owe him.”

Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi had been angrily accusing Ferro of stealing her and her castmates’ drinks at a Jersey Shore bar when he socked her in the face.

Dan Ferro blamed his son’s reaction on drunkenness and called it “self-defense.”

Footage of the assault, released by MTV, circulated widely on the Web but was omitted from the actual Season 1 episode.

Brad Ferro, now 25, was fired from his job as a gym teacher at North Queens Community HS, where he taught troubled kids, once the episode aired in December 2009.

He pleaded guilty to one charge of simple assault, paid a $500 fine and served six months’ probation.

“This kid has never been in any trouble — ever,” Dan Ferro said. “Thanks to MTV, he got fired. Every other option he would’ve had got cut off. He still has college loans.”

Snooki — who raised her rates for public appearances from $2,000 to $10,000 once the incident became public — now makes $30,000 an episode.

She has since become a New York Times best-selling author with her novel, “A Shore Thing,” and is on the cover of the current issue of Rolling Stone.

Ferro, meanwhile, was forced to move in with his grandmother this winter after his unemployment insurance ran out.

He and his family became exiles in their Deer Park, LI, community.

“We all had a hard time,” said Dan Ferro, his voice cracking. “We couldn’t even go to the diner.”

His son was more worried about his social life.

“That was one of the first things he said, ‘What kind of woman is gonna want to have anything to do with me?’ ” the father recalled. “I mean, you go on a couple of dates and then pump ‘Brad Ferro’ into Google . . . He wasn’t very sociable after that. ”

After realizing he was out of options, Brad decided to join the military, training, his dad said, as a Cavalry Scout — part of the specialized reconnaissance unit that is among the first behind enemy lines.

His conviction on a misdemeanor wasn’t a hindrance. Since 2007, the US military has been forced to recruit even hard-core felons to replenish dwindling combat troops.

Ferro left for basic training in Fort Knox, Ky., last month. His father hopes that no one on base recognizes his son.

“He lost his career and his pride and everything else,” his dad said. “But he’s getting it back. You can’t keep a good man down for too long.”