Plot

Flamboyant, gay Austrian Brüno looks for new fame in America.

Gay Austrian fashion guru Brüno has his own fashion-based television show, Funkyzeit, the most popular German-language show of its kind outside of Germany. After he disgraces himself in front of his Funkyzeit fan base, he is ruined in German-speaking Europe. He decides that in his quest for worldwide fame, he will move to Los Angeles and reinvent himself. Accompanying him to the US is Lutz, his former assistant's assistant, the only person left in his circle that still believes in Brüno's greatness. Brüno goes through one reinvention of himself after another, ultimately straying to areas far-removed from his true self. Perhaps when Brüno finds an activity that he truly loves, he will also find that über-fame he so desperately desires.—Huggo

Gay Austrian fashion reporter Bruno (Sacha Baron Cohen) lives in Vienna. He believes that he is an Uber Influencer and that Austrian super models live their lives as per his in and out list. Bruno is inappropriate, culturally insensitive, intrusive and provocative on his show (he gets one of his guest stars to show his pubic hair on the show). Bruno is fired from his own television show, Funkyzeit Mit Bruno (Funkytime with Bruno) after disrupting a Milan Fashion week catwalk in Sep 2008 (Bruno wears a suit entirely made from Velcro. He suit gets entangled in every piece of clothing it touches back stage. Then Bruno stumbles on the catwalk and ends up walking it), and his lover Diesel (Clifford Banagale) (who is a pygmy flight attendant) leaves him for another man. Bruno is blacklisted from all fashion events in Europe. Accompanied by his assistant's assistant, Lutz (Gustaf Hammarsten), he travels to the US to become "the biggest Austrian superstar since Hitler".

Bruno meets agent Lloyd Robinson to land a few gigs in Hollywood. After looking at Bruno's audition, Lloyd refuses to get him a role in a movie as a star. Bruno unsuccessfully attempts an acting career as an extra on NBC's Medium, as he continually interrupts the shooting (it was a court scene, and Bruno was cast as a Juror). Lutz suggests that they make a show about celebrities. Lloyd gets a network to pay for a focus group for Bruno's pilot.

Bruno then interviews Paula Abdul. Lutz forgets to set up any furniture. Bruno hires pool service guys and makes Paula sit on a fully clothed Mexican man posing as a chair. Bruno scares her off when he serves her sushi on the body of a totally naked Mexican man. Due to this stunt, Bruno is blacklisted from the celebrity interview circuit in Hollywood.

He then produces a celebrity interview pilot and presents it to Denny Bond (network producer at the CBS) and a focus group, showing him dancing erotically, criticizing Jamie-Lynn Spears' fetus with reality TV star Brittny Gastineau, unsuccessfully stalking and attempting to "interview" actor Harrison Ford, and closing with a close-up of his penis being swung around before his Peehole screams then zooming into it. The focus group audience who reviews the pilot hate it, calling it "worse than cancer". The network rejects the pilot.

Other advice suggests creating a sex tape, so Bruno interviews Congressman Ron Paul, the 2008 Presidential candidate (unwittingly "played" by himself) whom Bruno mistakes for drag queen RuPaul. While waiting in a hotel room for a staged technical problem to be fixed, Paul angrily storms from the hotel room after Bruno drops his pants and dances around the room, muttering about Bruno's homosexuality.

Bruno consults a spiritualist (Gary Williams) to contact the deceased Rob Pilatus of Milli Vanilli for advice, miming various sex acts on the invisible "Pilatus". Bruno realizes that charity is a great way to become famous. He decides to solve the hottest world tragedy to fix. He consults charity PR consultants Nicole and Suzanne DeFosset to select a world problem to maximize his fame (like global warming, animal rights, save Darfur, Amazon, AIDS), choosing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (as no celebrity has ever tried to solve this one). He flies to Jerusalem to interview former Mossad agent Yossi Alpher and Palestinian politician Ghassan Khatib and confuses hummus and Hamas. Bruno wants the Palestinians to return the Pyramids to the Israelis. In the interview with Israeli and Palestinian mediators he sings his own "Dove of Peace" while forcing the two to caress each other's hands. Bruno believes that the peace treaty failed as he did not have enough ecstasy for everyone.

He also meets with Ayman Abu Aita, subtitled as "terrorist group leader, Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades" in a location described as a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon (actually a restaurant near Bethlehem). Bruno hopes to get kidnapped as he had heard the message of the kidnapped people is broadcast all over the world by the mainstream media. Bruno insults Abu Aita's hair then says that "King Osama" looks like a dirty wizard or a homeless Santa Claus. Abu Aita's translator orders Bruno to leave. He stops off in Nairobi to pick up a few things, including a child, saying he is "black gold".

Bruno interviews parents of child models, asking if their children would be ready to lose a lot of weight, undergo liposuction, be near "antiquated heavy machinery" or "amateur science", or be dressed in Nazi uniforms. On a talk show hosted by Richard Bey, he shows the African American audience a baby named O.J. (Chibundu & Chigozie Orukwowu), whom he acquired in Africa by "swapping him" for a U2 Product Red iPod. He shows photographs of the boy covered with bees, on a crucifix and in a Jacuzzi next to adults in a 69 position.

The audience is appalled, and social services take the baby from Bruno, driving him to depression, later found at a diner gorging on high-Carb junk food. Lutz carries him back to a hotel room. After a night of sex, they awake to find themselves trapped in a bondage mechanism, unable to find the key. They call a hotel engineer for help and are asked to leave. After accosting a group of anti-gay protesters from the Westboro Baptist Church while still in bondage gear and boarding a bus, Bruno and Lutz remove their equipment at Madison County Office of Alternative Sentencing and Release in Huntsville, AL after being arrested. Lutz says he loves Bruno, but Bruno tells him he does not love him, having been influenced by "Carb goggles". Lutz leaves Bruno.

After realizing the biggest names in Hollywood are straight (citing Tom Cruise, Kevin Spacey and John Travolta), Bruno consults two Christian gay converters to help him become heterosexual. He attempts activities, such as joining the National Guard, going hunting in Alabama, learning karate and attending a swinger's party at which he is whipped by a dominatrix (Michelle McLaren). These attempts end miserably due to Bruno's failure to keep his gay traits hidden, but he vows to become straight.

Eight months later, a now-heterosexual Bruno, under the alias "Straight Dave", hosts a cage-fight match in Arkansas, "Straight Dave's Man Slammin' Maxout". Lutz appears at the event and calls Bruno a faggot. The two fights, only to rekindle their love, making out and stripping in front of the spectators who throw objects into the cage. The clip gets international press and the now-famous Bruno attempts to marry Lutz and get O.J. back in exchange for a MacBook Pro. Bruno records a charity song, "Dove of Peace", featuring Bono, Elton John, Chris Martin, Snoop Dogg, Sting and Slash at Abbey Road Studios.