Funny Money: Difference between revisions

[[File:250px-Zimbabwe_$100_trillion_2009_Obverse.jpg|link=Truth in Television|frame|The proceeds from [[Austin Powers|Doctor Evil's]] latest scheme didn't go as far as he had hoped.]]

Jokes about the worthlessness of [[Ruritania|Ruritanian]] currency are a comedy staple. Sadly, with the advent of the Euro and the retirement of the Italian lira, some favorite targets have gone. Other currencies lost include the Belgian Franc and the Slovene tolar.

* In ''[[Eurotrip]]'', the characters make it to Slovakia by accident and find they only have $1.83 US on them -- which, apparently, makes them close to being millionaires and grants them access to a lavish hotel room. (Naturally, this joke doesn't work anymore since Slovakia adopted the euro.)

* The Canadian dollar being [[Funny Money]] was a running gag on ''[[Whose Line Is It Anyway?]]'', mostly because regular Colin Mochrie was Canadian.

* In the online game/community [[Nation States]], each nation can name its own currency, whose value -- relative to other in-game currencies and real-world currencies -- is determined by the player's policy decisions. Quite a few fall into this territory.

* In ''[[Dubloon]]'', there's a man who is eager to sell you his goodies for 10,000 Farquads<ref>He doesn't accept dubloons.</ref>. Once an exchange service is open, you can find out that 10,000 Farquads are worth ''1 dubloon''. Said man is also Black<ref>Maybe he is from Zimbabwe?</ref>.

* ''[[Something Positive]]'' had a gag where PeeJee gave Davan her lucky (Canadian) quarter. It didn't work--and PeeJee and Aubrey got mad, his apparently negative karma having killed the coin's good luck. Davan shoots back that it's "not like it was real money anyway", to which Aubrey grudgingly agrees.

* A first-season episode of ''[[Scooby Doo]]'' saw Scooby as a potential heir to a share in a considerable fortune--a million American dollars. {{spoiler|Turns out, while Colonel Sanders (no! not ''that'' Colonel Sanders!) had the million-dollar fortune... the dollars were in worthless Confederate paper money. [[Fridge Logic|No attempt is made to explain why the mansion isn’t noted as part of the estate, since it’d at least be worth something]]...}}

* Hong Kong uses this trope properly (as in, the devaluation also allows for greater price differentials to people who care enough about it.) One US or Australian dollar is worth about $7-8 Hong Kong dollars; in the pricey tourist districts, that translates to just about the same prices back in the tourist's home country (cue first reaction looks of horror, however, when that beer costs $40HK). The rest of HK, however, gets $5 things, and as a result if you know where to look, you can get just about anything you want at a ridiculously low price.

* Don't make jokes like this about Australian currency [[Did Not Do the Research|without doing the research first]]. Not too long ago, the Aussie dollar was half an American one -- not any more. Though you wouldn't know it from the prices we get charged for everything...

*** And as of April 2011, we're merrily skipping around the $1.05-1.10 marks. (The key to this is that while the American economy is having trouble, the Australian economy is doing rather well--particularly as the trade in the basic minerals abundant in Australia and in demand in Asia picks up).<ref>The same applies to Canada, but the Canadian economy is sufficiently tied to the American to cause a moderate level of concern; as a result, the Canadian dollar is usually slightly weaker than the Australian these days.</ref>

*** That's the whole point -- exchange rate ''per se'' doesn't really mean much (and is rather easily manipulated by speculators), its dynamics, however, is the key. Since 2000 ruble is on the rise and is often said by the analysts to still be undervalued. And if the plans to chop two zeros off again would ever come to fruition, then the ruble would cost three to four dollars -- but that won't mean that anything really changed.

** Was -- it, and the Maltese lira, also worth more than the pound, were replaced by the euro in 2008.

* The Egyptian pound, with its current exchange rate of about six pounds to the dollar ($0.16 to the pound) doesn't seem so bad...until you realize how far it's fallen. When the pound was originally established in the early 20th century, it was worth exactly one British guinea--a pound and a shilling, or £1.05 when decimalised.<ref>The pound is a fairly new currency; in the late 19th century, the main currency was the ''qirsh'' or piastre (plural ''qurush''). The term for the Egyptian pound in Arabic, ''gineeh'', is derived from "guinea", which was worth almost exactly 100 ''qurush'' when the currency was established. Since this was awfully convenient--decimalisation without the fuss!--the Egyptian government decided to just make that the standard currency unit.</ref> Eventually, circumstances were such that the Egyptian pound appreciated against the pound sterling--eventually hitting £2 to £3 at some point. However, part of the economic restructuring started in [[The Seventies]] under Anwar Sadat (and continued since then) involved letting the currency float--and float it has, all the way down to its current value. This had three peculiar effects:

## Egyptians--especially older ones--are liable to see their own currency as [[Funny Money]], while foreigners are likely to say, "It's cheap, but it's not that bad."

*** And as of May 31, 2011, Winnipeg has an NHL hockey team once again--previously the Atlanta Thrashers, now the ''new'' Winnipeg Jets. Atlanta is the only U.S. city to lose an NHL team to Canada, and this team is the second they've lost. (The previous one was the Atlanta Flames, which moved to Calgary.) No word yet on the...[[The Scottish Trope|team]] in Phoenix.