Do you ask yourself, “I wonder what rich people do for fun?” I do, all the time. I always suspected it was more along the lines of floating in the pool in an evening gown or jetting to Paris for lunch but apparently it’s doing normal stuff like going to the bank. Last week, Oprah Winfrey popped by her friend Ellen DeGeneres’ show to promote her new food line, O, That’s Good. Oprah and Ellen have known each other a long time and have supported each other’s careers, Ellen even made Oprah a mock scrapbook of their friendship. The extras clip that they filmed together were more fun than the actual interview. We already discussed their trips to the store and to a fan’s house. Ellen does a post-show bit called Ellen’s Burning Questions. At one point, Ellen asked Oprah for her PIN number and that led to Oprah admitting she went to the bank for the first time in three decades just for fun.
For those of you who can watch it (bank story starts around 2:50), please do – the delivery is everything:
For those who can’t watch it yet:
“I went to the bank recently because I hadn’t been to the bank since 1988,” Winfrey, 63, detailed. “The Oprah Winfrey Show” kicked off in 1986.
“What did you go to the bank for?” DeGeneres asked in response. “To deposit a million dollars,” she quipped.
“Really, as like a check,” DeGeneres wondered.
“Yeah, I just wanted to go there just to do it. I stood in line, just to do it,” the OWN creator said.
“It felt fantastic,” she added before clarifying the amount she was depositing.
“Actually, it was $2 million.”
When Oprah tacks on that, “Actually, it was $2 million” at the end and they are both in peals of laughter – it made my day. Adding to that was Buzzfeed’s byline on this, in which they wrote “It felt fantastic!” *Laughs in rich* because that’s exactly what it sounded like. I wonder if you can fake rich laughing enough to pass it off? I’m going to try. “I hadn’t been shopping since escalators were invented so I went to a mall, just to browse in a store. I even asked to see some shoes and bought them!” *laughs in rich* Convincing? I’ll get there.
I’ve got no problem with this, I’ll be honest. I would rather two of the wealthiest women in this country don’t pretend they actually perform the everyday tasks most people do. And truthfully, who goes in to a bank at this point? I don’t think I’ve been in a branch for a few years myself. I’ll tell you what I like about this little story, sure they are laughing in rich and doubling an already absurd amount of money, but there were times in both Oprah and Ellen’s lives when they didn’t have enough money to deposit. I’m sure those to the manor born would take no pleasure in going to the bank but I can see the significance for these two. They worked hard for those checks and even I remember what to felt like to slide that first paycheck into the bank teller’s hand. I promise you, the day I have $2M, I too will wait my turn at my bank in my swimming pool gown, drop a few quips about spilling my champagne during my Parisian lunch and laugh in rich as I exit the building.
Photo credit: WENN Photos and Getty Images
Well, I know why she’s so content.
No shade though, live your best life Oprah, it’s nice to see.
Yep. And as a Black Woman growing in the times that she did, with the life that she did?’ SLOW CLAP W/STANDING OVATION.
In my Issa Rae voice: I’m rooting for all the Black people.
I’d love to do this, sounds fun. Although I imagine if you weren’t as recognisable as Oprah you would probably get a few questions about money laundering
I wish I could do the same thing. For me, even just depositing $200 sounds like fun
i get high from depositing a $100 check from a christmas gift so…i can’t imagine how good a cool $2mil feels. this story makes me feel good. her early life sounds devastating and she endured and she is entitled to laugh about how rich and powerful she is.
I’m a hater right now so I’ll keep this short and southern…..
Well, itn’t that lovely!?!
May I sit with you, please, Thebees?
Like my grandma never said
“If you don’t have anything nice to say come sit next to me”
Last week I took a crap and wiped myself for the first time since 1993. Usually Steadman does it for me…
Rich person laugh…
Passive aggressive?
Geez, here I am excited about cashing a refund check from the IRS. How peasant of me! *tries to laugh in rich laughter*
I’ve never worshipped at the shrine of Oprah. I still remember seeing her when she was a reporter for a local TV station in Baltimore, loudly berating a camera crew in front of a crowd of onlookers as they were trying to set up a shot. Her reinvention and ascent once she left Baltimore always amazed me.
I do kind of worship at the altar of Oprah. I come from a very similar background and she was an amazing role model for me while growing up. The fact that when you watched her show you knew she was in charge of it was very empowering to me. There’s lots of silly things about her, but she’s also an absolute trailblazer and unapologetic about being the boss.
They earned it. But white guys that earned it do it too. Mark Cuban once told a cute story about purpos fully leaving am ATM receipt showing a balance of many many million in the Machine just to jack with the person that found it.
For some reason, the Mark Cuban story sounds annoying to me. Like, as if I wouldn’t know that some people (or a lot of people) have way more money than me. I don’t need to see your bank receipt to know that. I don’t expect everyone to be annoyed like me though. I’m just saying this is my own personal response to that story — like, duh, I’m not dumb, you don’t need to underestimate my intelligence. I get that you’d have BANK in the bank! I’ve read Forbes magazine, I don’t need to see your receipts.
The Oprah story sounded amusing to me, however — in her case, it sounds like she simply wanted to know what being in a bank was like after so many years of not going to one.
You pinpointed why the Mark Cuban story is annoying and not comparable to Oprah. Oprah did it for her own experience, to see what it felt like FOR HER. Mark Cuban waned to get a rise out of “the little people.” He sought to gain pleasure, from their reaction. It has an exploitative undercurrent to it.
ETA: Also, when you watch the video, both of them are laughing because it also showed someone being out of touch (in a ridiculous, but lighthearted way). Oprah was the center of the story (or butt of the joke) in her version. Not so for Mark Cuban.
Not gonna lie, I would do this. And if they allowed horses, I’d do it on a white horse too with a travelling minstrel.
I think you need to do this, no matter the check amount.
“Ma’am, this is quite a spectacle, how can we help you?”
“Please deposit this $25 check, good sir!”
Oprah gets a pass from me. She annoys me sometimes with her “I have found all of the answers!” BS that she pulls quite often, but I do believe she means well.
I love to see people who’ve had it rough do really well. I know a guy who woke up one day to his father trying to beat him to death with a baseball bat when he was just a kid. His dad had a brain tumor that made him act out and lose his sanity. He ended up hitting the lottery as an adult and is a millionaire now. We all have hardships in life, but it feels good to know and see that *sometimes* things can really turn around for people. Oprah has been through it. If it makes her feel good to deposit $2million into her bank account because she can still remember the days when her life was so hard, I say more power to her.
After reading Cara’s story I couldn’t stop crying. That made me so upset. Then I see this story and a big smile. Thank you Hecate & CB gang for the fluff stories. I am sure the celeb’s reading this site appreciate it too.
I would stand in line at the bank and deposit two million. I think that would be fun. Good for her. Girl, earned every one of those dollars.
I wonder how long the “hold” is on a $2 million cheque. Probably more than the standard 10 business days … lol
Live your best life, ladies.