In Los Angeles, California, best friends Ivan Alexeev and Josh Tager lose their security guard jobs. At a bar, they watch music videos on the popular music network, RVTV. Josh exclaims that he could direct better music videos. Ivan decides they should start a music video company called “Video Aces.” The next morning, Josh’s parents, Sid and June, are unhappy that Josh was fired and tell him to move out of their house. After looking for an apartment, Josh and Ivan meet Belinda Mart, a contemporary artist looking for tenants to share her loft in a downtown warehouse. Ivan and Josh are hesitant, but Belinda tells them that her father, Norman Mart, owns the building and there would be no rent. She fails to tell them that her father is also running for U.S. president. Belinda takes a liking to Josh, but he is too shy to flirt with her. Later, Ivan watches a television commercial for a restaurant called “Roscoe’s Chicken `N Waffles.” Thinking the commercial is terrible, Ivan telephones Roscoe and convinces him to hire Video Aces to create a hipper commercial. Roscoe agrees, and pays Ivan and Josh in free chicken and waffles. Later, Josh complains that they are suppose to be making music videos, but Ivan insists they need to make commercials to build up Video Aces’ reputation. Getting jobs through distributing flyers, Josh videotapes commercials for local businesses, while Ivan goes to record companies to promote Video Aces. Later, Ivan meets Mo Fuzz, president of Fuzzball Records. Fuzz offers Ivan the opportunity to produce a music video for the Swedish band, “Cube Squared.” When Ivan asks for a deadline and budget, Fuzz says he and Josh have one day, and that this first music video will be “for spec,” compensated at a later date. Ivan and Josh record the video, but Fuzz does not like it. Back at the loft, Belinda tells her friends that she got them a job to record a charity ball. Arriving at the mansion of presidential candidate Norman Mart, Josh and Ivan meet Norman’s wife, Kay. During the party, Ivan meets music journalist Samantha Gregory and flirts with her until the party’s security guards escort her off the premises for investigating Mart. Elsewhere, Nikki Morton, Mart’s mistress, threatens to reveal a scandalous videotape if he does not give her more money. Mart orders his guards to get the tape, but Nikki hides the video inside a red box and slips it into Josh’s camera bag. In the evening, Ivan and Josh go to the loft’s roof, drinking and listening to their favorite band, “The Swanky Modes,” a rhythm and blues duo featuring Lester and Billy Diamond. The next morning, journalist Samantha Gregory telephones to announce that she got Video Aces a job for the heavy metal band, “Blender Children.” However, Ivan and Josh are fired after crashing the camera crane into the band. At a bar, the friends see The Swanky Modes, and hope to buy Billy and Lester beers, but when they turn around, the duo is gone. Meanwhile, Samantha breaks into the loft and finds Nikki Morton’s blackmail videotape of Norman Mart. After hiding the tape, she is confronted by Belinda. As the two women fight, Ivan and Josh arrive. Samantha informs them that the Blender Children were randomly crushed to death by a falling piece of an outer space laboratory at the Greek Amphitheater, and RVTV wants to air the last Blender Children music video in thirty minutes. At RVTV studios, Ivan and Josh bring their Blender Children footage, copied onto another videotape. As the music video premieres, the young men realize that Ivan dubbed the Blender Children’s music onto footage of a funeral they had recently recorded. Afterward, Ivan and Josh are praised for a work of genius. Samantha seduces Ivan, and convinces him to make her the Video Aces’s manager. On the way to the USA Video Awards ceremony, Samantha secures Ivan and Josh a deal to produce an upcoming live televised benefit concert featuring the popular band, "Menudo." At the awards show, Ivan and Josh end up winning the top USA Video Award for the Blender Children music video. Belinda’s mother, Kay, watches the show on television, and tells her husband, Norman Mart, that she hired Ivan and Josh to film her charity event. In response, Mart contacts his top security agents, Mr. G. and Mr. B, ordering them to search the Video Aces office for Nikki’s tape. Later, Josh and Ivan go to a bar and see Lester and Billy Diamond performing. They tell the brothers that The Swanky Modes are their favorite band, and that they would love to produce a live Swanky Modes televised concert. Lester and Billy assume the young men are inebriated. Josh and Ivan return to the loft and catch Mr. G. and Mr. B. rummaging through their videotapes. Believing the men are a band and want to record a music video, Ivan tells them to come back in the morning. Meanwhile, Josh approaches Belinda and they make love. In the morning, Mr. G., Mr. B., and their associates arrive. After giving Ivan and Josh a briefcase with money, Mr. G. and Mr. B. distract them while the others search for Mart’s tape. Upon finding the red box, the agents leave. Elsewhere, Samantha meets with Norman Mart and tells him she has his incriminating video. Mr. G. and Mr. B. arrive, but when they play the video in Mart’s VCR, they see the original Blender Children music video. As The Swanky Modes arrive to the loft to warm up for Ivan and Josh’s promised satellite broadcast concert, Samantha runs in. Outside, Mr. G. and Mr. B. order the agents to fire their guns into the loft. Thinking they want the briefcase of money back, Lester and Billy offer to return it. However, the agents reject the money. Lester and Billy take the briefcase and run away. Belinda recognizes Mr. G. and Mr. B. as her father’s guards, and orders them to leave her and her friends alone. Later, Ivan and Josh go to film Menudo’s live concert. When the band’s limousine arrives, Ivan and Josh tell the members that they cannot perform without green cards and instructs them go back to their hotel. After the limousine leaves, the concert hall marquee is changed to promote The Swanky Modes as headlining the concert. Mr. G. and Mr. B. arrive and chase Samantha for the videotape. In the control room, Samantha throws the tape to Josh, who throws it to Ivan. However, Ivan inadvertently tosses it to Mr. B. Norman Mart appears and takes the tape, stating that its contents would ruin his chances for winning the presidency. Josh suggests Mart should view the tape. As Josh places the video into a recorder, he hooks up the satellite uplink, feeding the footage of a nude Norman Mart being spanked by various women throughout multiple television station affiliates. Mart begins to cry, realizing his political career is ruined. When Belinda arrives, she reveals that Norman Mart is her father. As Belinda comforts her father, the audience chants for the show to start. As the lights go down and the curtain draws up, The Swanky Modes appear onstage and perform to the cheering audience. After the concert, two FBI agents arrest Ivan and Josh for broadcasting Mart’s video, stating it was a form of pornography. Though Ivan and Josh are acquitted, they are sent to a minimum-security complex in Malibu Colony, California, due to a large amount of parking tickets.