Vulgar is about a man who is a children's clown but has not been getting much luck lately. He lives in a cheap apartment which he can't even afford. Bums are constantly sleeping in his run down car and crashing on his lawn. He has a nagging mother who lives in a nursing home, and his best friend is a moocher. One day he comes up with the idea to become a bachelor clown.

Interviews in the Michael Moore/"Roger and Me" tradition examine life in small-town America, class conflicts and the collapse of an upstate New York community, Dadetown, when the town's once-prosperous factory, reduced to the manufacture of paper clips and staples, finally closes. Facing massive unemployment, the blue-collar Dadetown residents next find yuppies moving into town to staff the local division of a big computer outfit.