While smoking some marijuana in their Jersey City apartment one evening, they see a TV ad for White Castle and decide to make a trip for some hamburgers. Finding a White Castle ends up being more difficult than they imagined, and they find themselves on a chaotic road trip full of drug-fueled, politically incorrect philosophy.[3]
During their quest for a 24-hour White Castle their trip becomes more and more bizarre. Buying drugs from a college hippie ends up being a mistake. It turns out he is a self proclaimed "business hippie" who grossly overcharges them.[3]
They blow off what they think will be a boring, highbrow gathering with Princeton's East Asian Students Club for "some fun" with two promiscuous college girls. The pair discovers, though, that their hot dates are gross and their intellectual friends really know how to party.[3]They eventually are attacked by a raccoon and attempt to pass themselves off as surgeons (in the hopes of finding access to medical marijuana).[3]
A hideous but helpful tow truck driver later proves to have an unbelievably attractive wife. Their excitement when she propositions them, however, is short-lived; when it turns out the husband will join in.[3]
They also run into Neil Patrick Harris (playing an alternative-reality version of himself),[3] who is strung out on ecstasy[4] and hitchhiking in the middle of nowhere. Harris plans to use his child star status to get laid. Harold and Kumar later see Harris flying down the road in the car he stole from them while snorting coke off the buttocks of a partially naked stripper.[3]
Stealing a truck from a stupid, macho jock allows them to uncover the jock’s secret love of cheesy ballads.[3]
Happening across Harold’s unrequited crush, they discover that she shares his love of John Hughes’ 1980s Americana films.[3]
After being arrested by a cop for looking different, the two encounter an African-American man, arrested, of course, for being black. The pair break out of jail and steal the "business hippie"'s huge bag of marijuana, which had been confiscated by the police, before returning to their on-going quest for fast food nirvana.[3]
In the end, the duo gets their "Sticks and Sliders", find a small measure of revenge against Harold’s co-workers and have their car returned by a repentant Harris. As they dine on their burgers, Kumar observes that there are many kinds of “burgers” in America, and all he really wants is the right to enjoy them all.[3] After this, the duo heads back to their apartments, there Harold finds the girl of his dreams in the elevator and ends up making out with her. Unfortunately, she is leaving for ten days in Amsterdam. The duo plans to join her.