Banknotes and nostalgia
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Anne Roumanoff, a French comic, has a funny skit about the euro. This whole video clip shows many daily moments of how the euro is affecting French life. For example, when shopkeepers had to calculate changes in the euro while still (in the early stages) receiving francs from their customers.
The funniest, and actually the most poignant, joke is at the 7:42 point where she jokes about "couples who argue in the euro." Cultural elements, like money, have deep associations with history, daily life, memories and other very important human interactions. For example saying things like (presumably by a wife to her husband) "you're going to say that I'm throwing euros out the window?" has that cold, detached, cultureless ring to it that saying "you're going to say that I'm throwing francs out the window?" would not.
When I first heard about the euro replacing French currency, my first thought was how will they replace those beautiful franc notes, with all the historical portraits on them? As I predicted, the euro notes have no character to them, but look like some detached graphic designer drew outlines of "architectural elements" to decorate them.
Well, they at least they make the subject of funny, if not nostalgic, jokes.
