--- title: Oprah Winfrey Shares Origin of You Get a Car Moment description: She explains that it was totally improvised canonical: https://time.com/4123415/oprah-you-get-a-car-origin/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-21T16:33:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:27:06.276Z og:title: Oprah Shares Real Story Behind Iconic 'You Get a Car!' Moment og:description: For starters, it was totally improvised og:url: https://time.com/4123415/oprah-you-get-a-car-origin/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltca60a42fa45d7d7f/698868f23c1639080245a4b8/oprah.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: CBS This Morning og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Oprah Shares Real Story Behind Iconic 'You Get a Car!' Moment twitter:description: For starters, it was totally improvised twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltca60a42fa45d7d7f/698868f23c1639080245a4b8/oprah.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Oprah Shares the Real Story Behind Her Iconic 'You Get a Car!' Moment ## Video: Oprah Gives Away 'Essence' Magazine Cover Dress To Twitter Follower [Watch (HLS stream): Oprah Gives Away 'Essence' Magazine Cover Dress To Twitter Follower](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/nKvAJzLW.m3u8) (1:27)  _Published 2014-03-07. When Atlanta resident Brandi saw Oprah Winfrey on the cover of Essence Magazine’s March issue, she fell in love with O’s over-the-top gown. She Tweeted the media mogul asking if she could have it. And it turns out, ask and you shall receive._ by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Nov 21, 2015 4:33 PM UTC  Oprah Winfrey visits CBS This Morning with Co-hosts Norah O'Donnell and Gayle King on Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2015. Oprah Winfrey visits CBS This Morning with Co-hosts Norah O'Donnell and Gayle King on Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2015.Heather Wines—CBS/Getty Images by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Nov 21, 2015 4:33 PM UTC “You get a car! You get a car! Everybody gets a car!” It’s been eleven years since Oprah Winfrey shouted those now-iconic words. On Sept. 13, 2004, the media mogul gave each member of her audience a Pontiac G6 — and it quickly became one of the most memorable Oprah moments of all time. Even now, a decade later, it continues to generate [meme after meme](http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/oprahs-you-get-a-car). In a [recent interview ](http://www.etonline.com/tv/176367%5Fexclusive%5Foprah%5Fwinfrey%5Fexplains%5Ficonic%5Fyou%5Fget%5Fa%5Fcar%5Fmoment/)with _Entertainment Tonight,_ Winfrey revealed how that moment happened. For starters, it was totally improvised: “I was saying that because people were screaming so loudly they didn’t know what was going on,” Winfrey explained. She had just given every audience member a box and said only one of them contained a key. So naturally they were confused when _everyone_ started jumping up and down with excitement. “Prior to that moment, I had said, ‘Open up your boxes. One person has a key.’ So when I looked at the faces of the audience, they go, ‘But I have a key … but she has a key,’ so that’s why I said, ‘You get a car! You get a car!’ to try to clarify, because they all looked so confused. Everybody gets a car!” Years later, Winfrey [called](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CAscBCdaQg) the giveaway one of her “all-time, favorite, happiest moments ever.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4123415/oprah-you-get-a-car-origin/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4123415/oprah-you-get-a-car-origin/"},"headline":"Oprah Shares the Real Story Behind Her Iconic 'You Get a Car!' 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