The wackiest episode in “American Idol’s” wackiest season unspooled last night when a Bronx man who bombed on the show was escorted out of his audition by security guards.

Ian Benardo – who once worked as a telephone psychic – was allowed to sing nearly all of Laura Brannigan’s 1982 hit “Gloria,” before the judges began insulting his act.

“You’re not good at anything,” said snarky British judge Simon Cowell. “It’s just rubbish.”

At that point, Benardo demanded to see a work visa for Cowell, who then signaled security guards to eject the colorful, fur-scarf-wearing oddball.

“Simon has built an empire by sitting in a chair and being bored and British, and I just wanted to know if he is legally allowed to be making millions of dollars off us,” Benardo, 26, told The Post.

“Since he had no answer, that makes me believe he may not be legally working here in the United States.

“Why is a British man telling me what an American Idol is? I’m not shy – I’m from The Bronx.”

Benardo had shown up for his audition last summer in a chinchilla scarf and a blue T-shirt emblazoned with his name.

“Simon said everything insulting in the book to me,” said Benardo. “But he has a very limited British vocabulary.”

Benardo claims he is close to releasing a new CD single called “I’m Better Than You.”

“They were all pretty shocked by me,” Benardo said about the judges’ reaction to his singing.

“What were they shocked about? They’re like the biggest media whores on Earth.

“I’m a pretty entertaining person, so I was shocked that they were pretty negative to me.”

On a more serious note, Benardo said he finds it amazing that there’s so much hoopla over “Idol.”

“I think it’s ridiculous that what happens on ‘American Idol’ overshadows the fact that we have soldiers in Iraq getting killed with no exit plan,” he said.

He’s had his own experience with war, surviving two suicide bombings in Israel.

After the second attack, in 2005, Benardo helped find other survivors and was interviewed extensively by The Post.

“It was horrible, I was right there, right down the street when it happened,” he recalled yesterday.

Not all who auditioned on last night’s two-hour “Idol” fared as badly as Benardo.

In all, 35 who auditioned in New York got a thumbs-up from the judges to advance to the show’s Hollywood rounds, including pals Amanda Coluccio, 19, of Holmdel, N.J., and Antonella Barba, also 19, of Point Pleasant, N.J.; Kia Thornton, 27, of Englewood, N.J.; Porcelana Patino, 27, of Elmhurst, Queens; and Rachel Zevita, 18, a Manhattan opera student.

don.kaplan.@nypost.com