Skip Donahue (Gene Wilder) and Harry Monroe (Richard Pryor) are a couple of out-of-work numbskulls who take a promotional job that requires them to dress up like gigantic woodpeckers. Unfortunately, a pair of thieves, likewise decked out in woodpecker suits, pull off a bank job not long after Skip and Harry make their first public appearance. The boys are arrested and sentenced to 120 years each.

After trying to make the best of things in prison, Skip and Harry break out, hoping to track down the genuine thieves and prove their innocence.