Potter announces that her necklace has been stolen and offers a reward of one thousand dollars, whereupon Chico offers two thousand.
To Groucho's frustration, Chico keeps outbidding everyone, even himself. In another sequence, while he is acting as auctioneer for some land of possibly questionable value ("You can have any kind of a home you want to you can even get stucco! Oh, how you can get stuck-oh!"), Groucho has hired Chico to act as a shill to inflate the sale prices by making bogus bids. One of the more famous gag routines in the film involves Chico not knowing what a " viaduct" is, which Groucho keeps mentioning, prompting Chico to ask, " why-a-duck". The main titles are superimposed over a negative image of the "Monkey-Doodle-Do" number photographed from an angle that does not appear in the body of the film. The musical numbers were not pre-recorded, but were shot live on the soundstage with an off-camera orchestra. The film is, however, notable for its musical production numbers, including cinematic techniques which were soon to become standard, such as overhead shots of dancing girls imitating the patterns of a kaleidoscope. The somewhat thin plot primarily provides a framework for the running gags of the Marx Brothers to take prominence. Yates is actually a confidence man out to steal the dowager's expensive diamond necklace with the help of his partner in crime, Penelope. Potter wants her daughter to marry Harvey Yates, whom she believes to be of higher social standing than Adams. He works to support himself as a clerk at the hotel, but has grand plans for the development of the entire area as Cocoanut Manor. Her daughter Polly is in love with struggling young architect Bob Adams. Potter is one of the few paying customers.
Harpo and Chico arrive with empty luggage, which they apparently plan to fill by robbing and conning the guests. Hammer runs the hotel, assisted by Jamison, who would rather sleep at the front desk than actually help him run it.
The Cocoanuts is set in the Hotel de Cocoanut, a resort hotel, during the Florida land boom of the 1920s.
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