If you can’t take a joke, don’t invite a joker as your keynote speaker.
State Hispanic leaders learned just that after they asked actor Tony Plana — who played the dad in the popular TV show “Ugly Betty” — to address their annual Somos el Futuro conference last weekend.
Plana — a native of Cuba whose wife is Mexican — offended some of the attendees with his bawdy humor. Several audience members, including Bronx Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo, walked out in protest.
“So, what is the reason why we are not one race but many races, not one culture but many cultures?” Plana asked of Hispanics. “Because we’ll sleep with anybody! We’re equal-opportunity lovers — especially after three tequilas.”
Religion was fair game as well.
Switching from speaking in English to Spanish, Plana also added that the Catholic Church should change the communion wafer to an empanada in order to celebrate Pope Francis’ Argentinian roots.
Enough people were upset that Bronx Assemblyman Marcos Crespo issued a letter of apology.
“Unfortunately, Mr. Plana’s speech became an ongoing set of pejoratives that were considered by many in attendance as . . . an endorsement of hurtful stereotypes,” he wrote.
Plana’s agent did not return calls seeking comment.