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Bananas

The film opens with Howard Cosell 's coverage of the assassination of the president of the fictional " banana republic " of San Marcos and a coup d'état that brings Gen. Emilio Molina Vargas to power.

Fielding Mellish is a neurotic blue-collar man who tries to impress social activist Nancy by connecting with the revolution in San Marcos. He visits the republic and attempts to show his concern for the native people. However, Vargas secretly orders his men, disguised as Vargas's opponents, to kill Mellish to make the rebels look bad so that the U.S. will send Vargas financial aid. Mellish evades Vargas's assassins but is shortly captured by the real rebels. Vargas declares Mellish dead regardless, leaving Mellish no choice but to join the rebels for two months. Mellish then clumsily learns how to be a revolutionary. When the revolution is successful, it becomes apparent that Esposito, the Castro-style leader, has gone mad. The rebels decide to replace him with Mellish as their president.

While traveling back to the U.S. to obtain financial aid, Mellish (sporting a long fake beard) reunites with Nancy and is exposed. In court, Mellish tries to defend himself from a series of incriminating witnesses, including a reigning Miss America and a middle-aged African-American woman claiming to be J. Edgar Hoover in disguise. One of the witnesses does provide testimony favorable to Mellish, but the court clerk, when asked to read back this testimony, replies with an entirely different, wholly unfavorable rendition. Mellish is eventually sentenced to prison, but his sentence is suspended on the condition that he does not move into the judge's neighborhood. Nancy then agrees to marry him. The film ends with Cosell's coverage of the between-the-covers consummation of their marriage, an event that was over much more quickly than Nancy had anticipated, with Mellish anticipating a rematch in the early spring.