People share the wildest things they've seen or heard at "rich people events."
So many of us love to binge the exotic, exorbitant lives of characters in shows like Succession, White Lotus, and The Gilded Age, but it’s another thing altogether to see it play out in real life.
Recently, average joes who have borne witness to people who simply have way too much money to burn (usually as their hired hands) shared some stories likely to leave you with equal parts awe and disgust. Stories of last minute jet setting for seasonal truffles, car accident “fall guys,” full-on backyard carnivals, and more.
Jessica Walter in 'Arrested Development.' media4.giphy.com
Below are a few glimpses into just how the other half lives.
1. Truffles in Tokyo
“I was a server at a really nice restaurant and ended up working a dinner in our private room for the president of a major movie production studio's birthday…At one point in the dinner his assistant (one of three assistants sitting at the end of the long dinner table) informed him that the first truffles of the season had been delivered to some chef in Tokyo. So producer guy goes ‘Great! Anyone want to go to Tokyo this weekend for a truffle tasting?’ A couple of people said yes so he instructed the assistant to ‘make sure one of the jets is available’ for the trip. They stayed 3 hours after we closed. Bought every bottle of the same brand of wine we had in our cellar ‘for the road,’ let me taste a 1989 Chateau Haut-Brion and tipped $3600 for the lateness of their departure. Wild night.”
Andrew Skarsgard in 'Succession.' media1.giphy.com
2. Hired Fall Guy for Car Accidents
“My friend had a friend who is one of those ‘Crazy Rich Asian’ type of dudes…One day, this rich dude was driving his Ferrari on the toll road. My friend was in another car following him for a car meetup event. This dude crashed his Ferrari into another car, and then stopped on the side of the road…[and] called someone. In 10 minutes there was a yellow Lamborghini. The Lambo driver went out, took the Ferrari key from the rich dude's hands, and then sat inside the crashed Ferrari. The rich dude drove the Lambo and continued the journey. Apparently the new driver will take the fall for every single crash related problem. Oh yeah, the police were there the whole time, and they didn’t bother to talk or approach the rich dude before the lambo driver came up.”
Ryan Gosling in 'The Fall Guy' media0.giphy.com
3. A Yacht…Just In Case
“I once had super wealthy bosses and they were talking about their friend who owned several buildings. And who had a big yacht [that] always ready to go [with] a full complement of personnel, paid full time… It was basically a hotel at sea. The thing is, the guy rarely used it. So you had a boatload of bored people who had nothing much to do. If the guy goes to Europe, he would rather fly there -- and have the yacht head there ahead, just in case he felt like using it. Which wasn't all the time.”
Leonardo DiCaprio in 'Wolf of Wall Street' media2.giphy.com
4. Two African Safaris, Please
“When we were poor our daughter went to a private preschool that was great for her disability and they accepted us at hardly any tuition in exchange for speaking at fundraising events for them on our daughters benefit from being at the school. At their big fancy yearly ball dinner we were speakers and they sat us at a donor table. We were literally stealing dinner rolls to make our Carl Buddig sandwich meat better. At the auction portion one of the ladies explained that last year she bid on and won the African safari but she didn’t have anyone to go with her so she donated it back to this years event. As that vacation came up for bid she goes ‘wait my niece loves animals and travel, I’ll take her’ and she went and bought it for he second year in a row.”
Goldie Hawn in 'The First Wives Club' media3.giphy.com
5. 20K Rehearsal Dinner
“I worked a private event as a waiter, it was a rehearsal dinner. The father of the bride was telling everyone he chartered a private jet for his daughter and son in law to fly to Bali for their 6 week honeymoon, which he has also paid for. The jet was to stay there for their use for the duration of the trip in case they wanted to visit other places if they got bored. The rehearsal dinner for 20 people was about 20k.”
Martin Short in 'Father of the Bride.' media3.giphy.com
6. Secret Service Wedding
“It was a ritzy wedding and someone there was a congressman. So we had secret service throughout the wedding pretending like they were guests while also not engaging with anyone to be distracted. They were like real life NPCs.”
Hopefully they were paid well. media3.giphy.com
7. Losing 10K Like It's Nothing
“I was in the Peace Corps in Zambia. We used to hang out at the casino in Lusaka cause they gave you free food, drinks, and cigarettes while you played. We would play like $2 hands of blackjack just to get fed. But I went to the roulette table and some guy put down $10,000 in USD all over the table. Lost his spin, and just shrugged his shoulders and walked away…I was floored by the amount of wealth that existed right around us.”
I can't imagine even betting with $10. media3.giphy.com
8. A Family's Worth of Ferraris
“My buddy took me on a cruise with our local Ferrari club. The house we went to was owned by a member who had 8 Ferrari's in his garage… While we were there he unveiled his new car, a custom built Daytona SP3 that was all completely custom. The base price of the car is around $2.2 million so with the customizations it was closer to $3 million the way he had it. The crazy part was the story he told about it. This was supposed to be an early build number car but it was delayed. He had to ask Ferrari about why his $3 million dollar car was taking so long while he was putting in another order for a different completely custom Ferrari that is probably worth even more than that. Spending more money on 2 cars than I'll probably make in my whole life was a pretty wild story to hear while in a garage with cars that collectively are worth more than my family has made all together for a couple of generations. Really puts the wealth gap into perspective.”
You can never have too many Ferraris… media4.giphy.com
9. Friends in High Places
“The CEO of my company came down to visit our office and took all the managers out to lunch. He asked for an update on projects going on, and one person mentioned having been stuck in limbo because of the state agency not getting us the approval. He asked if anyone had tried calling the governor. After he looked around and saw a table full of blank stares, he pulled his phone out and did just that. Apparently the governor is a buddy, and the situation was resolved the next day.”
A still from 'Home Economics.' media1.giphy.com
10. Night At The Museum
“I was invited to a corporate party in NYC. The party was at the Museum of Modern Art. They rented the museum for the evening. There was a caviar table you could go to and get as much caviar as you wanted. I was told that the caviar cost $5,000."
Doesn't sound like a bad night, honestly. media1.giphy.com
11. 24/7 Butler
“I was hired to be a photographer at a wedding. They had rented the venue at a very expensive vineyard. There was a mansion there and as part of the deal the bridal party got to stay at the mansion. The owner is almost never actually there. He lives in a big White House, if you know what I mean. I show up early the morning of the wedding and I’m greeted by the butler…He said it’s shift work, that there are basically three of them…and it’s 8 hour shifts. So I [asked] ‘if I showed up at 2am in January one of you would be here, all alone in the mansion, just knocking around on the odd chance the big guy shows up?’ And he was like ‘yeah, someone’s always here.’ That just kinda blew my mind. Can you imagine just being the dude who sits alone in someone else’s mansion polishing the silver waiting to see if they show up?”
You never know when someone might visit your mansion. media1.giphy.com
12. Throwing Away Perfectly Good Fillet
“Not at an event, but at my then 9yr old son's friend's house. They were VERY wealthy, and it was the Dads birthday dinner. They were having fillet steak, seafood etc. Their two sons were disgusted that hey were having fillet steak-AGAIN. And one threw his away, and the other huffed off to his room and demanded his Dad (whos birthday it was) take him to get a pizza. Dad actually DID! And my macaroni eating kid sat there scarfing his steak and witnessing the majesty of life.”
Who throws away fillet? media0.giphy.com
13. Racing Porsches
“I attended a rich person dinner in Bel Air… I began to make small talk with the guy seated next to me. We started talking about traveling, and he said his friend recently ‘raced with the Porsches in Germany.’ I looked at him, and said ‘oh, you mean he raced Porsches in Germany, that's great.’ He looked at me confused and said ’"no, he raced with the Porsche family’ and rattled off a couple names of the Porsche heirs that apparently they were friendly with.”
Barry Keoghan in 'Saltburn.' media1.giphy.com
14. Owning Politicians
“I was at a political fundraising dinner around 20 years ago. There were many affluent rich people there but only one billionaire. At one point I naively asked him why he didn’t run for office. He laughed and looked me directly in they eyes and said, ‘son, why would I be a politician when I can own one?’”
Paul Giamatti in 'Billions.' media4.giphy.com
15. Backyard Carnival…For a 4-Year-Old
“My dad cooked a small dinner at a very privately wealthy family's house, in which Dick Cheney was a guest and they flew in Elton John to play piano for the night. That same family put on a birthday party for their 4 year old granddaughter, who wanted “a carnival” for her birthday, so they invited all of the country club staff's families to ‘make the place look alive.’ Free carnival rides and food all day and night. In their backyard.”
An image of a carnival media2.giphy.com
Of course, what also makes many of our beloved rich-centric shows so watchable is the fact that these characters, even with their excessive wealth, cannot escape grief, loss, or retribution for their wrongdoings. I'm not to say that any of the wealthy folks from these stories should face comeuppance simply for having what many others want, but it’s no secret that the working class sees this stark contrast more and more each day, and will not stop calling for more equality in one way or another.
Meatloaf was a staple dinner.
Spaghetti is still a classic.
Why were pork chops so popular?
Woman disappointed by last minute cancelled plans. 
Sitting closer than necessary to someone is rude. 
A person honks their car horn. 
Woman takes a pause.
People talking.