Because ratings for singer Jerry Wade's radio program, which specializes in swing music, have dropped drastically in the past six months, announcer Gus Bryce suggests that they do a hillbilly program. Jerry, who thinks that the previous hillbilly music craze was killed when the public discovered the "hillbillies" were phonies from Brooklyn, offers to go with Gus to dig up "the real McCoy" and calls off an audition for new talent. This disappoints Caroline, a performer from Kentucky, who has been waiting hours to audition. Caroline visits her fellow boardinghouse residents, out-of-work performers The Ritz Brothers, who are faking injuries in a hospital hoping to collect after being in an automobile accident. When they learn that the man who hit them is uninsured and on relief, they return to the boardinghouse. After Caroline tells them about the search for hillbilly talent, the boys decide to go to Kentucky and disguise themselves as hillbillies, so that Jerry will hire them. Caroline gets travel money from "Spats" Swanson, who is trying to seduce her, by telling him that her aunt needs false teeth. In the town of Coma in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Ritz Brothers and Caroline stay in the delapidated Slack family shack. They are confronted by the Hatfields, who have feuded with the Slacks for nearly eighty years. When Jerry and Gus arrive, the Ritz Brothers, disguised in beards, perform for them, as does Caroline, disguised as the Ritz's sister. Jerry is impressed with them all, and he convinces his sponsors to allow him to broadcast his show from Coma. Caroline grows to like Jerry and feels bad about deceiving him. At the show, when the Ritz Brothers see the drunken Hatfields in the audience, they pretend that they have the hiccups, so Jerry sings instead. In New York, because of a bad connection, almost none of the show is heard. When the brothers see that the Hatfields have fallen asleep, they perform, but Hank Hatfield awakens and sees them. He revives his brothers, who shoot at and chase the Ritz Brothers. Jerry arranges for his sponsor to allow him to bring the show to New York, but Caroline says she will not go. She and Jerry walk by a stream, where he bets a dollar to a kiss that he can hit a log with a stone. After two kisses, Caroline says that she now wants to go to New York, and they embrace. In New York, shortly before the broadcast, Spats comes to Caroline's hotel room and threatens to tell reporters about the ruse unless the Ritz Brothers pay $300. They give him the money, but he then says that he will tell anyway and knocks out two of them before Harry Ritz knocks him out, and then, for no apparent reason, knocks himself out. Gus finds out that the brothers are fakes, but they tie him up in the bathtub. Caroline leaves a note for the brothers saying that she can't hurt Jerry, but that she does not want to spoil their chances, so she is leaving for Chicago. The brothers show Jerry the note and reveal their scheme, and Jerry goes to Grand Central Station in search of Caroline, while the Ritz Brothers take over the show. Their act is a hit, and Jerry finds Caroline, who says she will marry him. Impressed with the Ritz Brothers, the sponsor sees the need for a comedy show. Jerry arrives in time to sing the last number, which he shares with the Ritz Brothers.