The film follows the Internet phenomenon created by a series of twenty-year-old outtakes from a Winnebago sales video featuring profane outbursts from a salesperson named Jack Rebney.

[2] The documentary starts with Steinbauer's obsession with a widely circulated viral video featuring outtakes from an RV commercial shoot centered on a cantankerous pitchman, Jack Rebney, a former broadcast journalist.

He tracks down the original crew of the video, who explain that the shoot was a particularly frustrating experience, and, as a result of the outtakes, Rebney got fired, and they never saw him again.

Steinbauer is surprised to find Rebney calm, congenial, and articulate—in stark contrast to the angry, profane man in the famous video.

After the screening, Rebney meets several fans who request autographs and express how viewing the old footage cheers them up after a hard day.

Rebney replies by acknowledging that he takes some small degree of pride in how, for many people, he represents the human condition in the face of adversity.

[8][9] A sixty-minute version of Winnebago Man was aired in the United Kingdom on BBC Four on August 30, 2010, as part of the Storyville series of documentaries.

The website's critical consensus reads: "Though it doesn't quite answer all of the questions it raises, Winnebago Man is nevertheless a fascinating, hilarious, and surprisingly poignant look at a geniunely [sic] colorful internet celebrity.