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The Joker is a
playing card A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a fi ...
found in most modern French-suited card decks, as an addition to the standard four suits (Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, and Spades). From the second half of the 20th century, they have also been found in
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
- and
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...
-suited decks, excluding
stripped deck A stripped deck or short deck (US), short pack or shortened pack (UK), is a set of playing cards reduced in size from a full pack or deck by the removal of a certain card or cards. The removed cards are usually pip cards, but can also be court c ...
s. The Joker originated in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
during the
Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
, and was created as a
trump Trump most commonly refers to: * Donald Trump (born 1946), 45th president of the United States (2017–2021) * Trump (card games), any playing card given an ad-hoc high rank Trump may also refer to: Businesses and organizations * Donald J. T ...
card for the game of
Euchre Euchre or eucre () is a trick-taking card game commonly played in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Great Britain, and the United States. It is played with a deck of 24, 28, or 32 standard playing cards. Normally there are four players, two on e ...
. It has since been adopted into many other
card game A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card ...
s, where it often acts as a wild card, but may have other functions such as the top trump, a skip card (forcing another player to miss a turn), the lowest-ranking card, the highest-value card or a card of a different value from the rest of the pack (see e.g.
Zwickern Zwickern or Zwicker, is a German fishing card game for two to eight players played in Schleswig-Holstein in North Germany. It is an old game whose rules first appeared in 1930. It has been described as "a simpler and jollier version of Cassino", ...
which has 6 Jokers with this function). By contrast, a wild card is any card that may be used to represent another card or cards; it need not be a Joker.


Origin

The game of
Euchre Euchre or eucre () is a trick-taking card game commonly played in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Great Britain, and the United States. It is played with a deck of 24, 28, or 32 standard playing cards. Normally there are four players, two on e ...
is credited with the introduction of the Joker into card games. However, Euchre began life with no Joker. In the earliest rules of 1844, 32 standard cards are used and the ''Right Bower'', the trump Jack, was the "commanding card" with the ''Left Bower'', the Jack of the same colour, as the second-highest card. According to card game historian,
David Parlett David Parlett (born 18 May 1939 in London) is a games scholar, historian, and translator from South London, who has studied both card games and board games. He is the president of the British Skat Association. His published works include many pop ...
, the Joker was added to a 32-card pack in the 1850s specifically for the game of Euchre and is first mentioned in a set of rules in 1868 where it turns out to be a blank specimen card not intended for actual play. This gave rise to a variant game called "Euchre with the Joker" in which the blank card ranked above all the rest. It must have been in use even earlier, however, since the term "Best Bower" appears in a satirical 1861 piece about the American Civil War, and in fact Samuel Hart is credited with printing the first illustrated "Best Bower" card in 1863 with his "Imperial Bower". Best Bower-type Jokers continued to be produced well into the 20th century. Cards labelled "Joker" began appearing around the late 1860s, with some depicting
clown A clown is a person who performs comedy and arts in a state of open-mindedness using physical comedy, typically while wearing distinct makeup or costuming and reversing folkway-norms. History The most ancient clowns have been found in ...
s and
jester A jester, court jester, fool or joker was a member of the household of a nobleman or a monarch employed to entertain guests during the medieval and Renaissance eras. Jesters were also itinerant performers who entertained common folk at fairs and ...
s. The idea behind the three top cards in Euchre appears to have originated from Germany where the games
Juckerspiel Juckerspiel, also known as Jucker or Juckern, is a card game that was popular in the Alsace region. It is believed to be the ancestor of Euchre and may have given its name to the playing card known as the Joker.Bumpo (1999), pp. 7–9. History ...
and
Bester Bube Bester Bube ("Best Bower") or Fünfkart ("Five Cards") is an historical German card game for 3–6 players played with a Piquet pack. It is one of the Rams group of card games characterised by allowing players to drop out of the current game if the ...
("Best Bower") also used Jacks as best, right and left bowers. It is also believed that the term "Joker" comes from ''Juckerspiel'', which is also known as ''Jucker'', the original German spelling of Euchre. One British manufacturer, Charles Goodall, was manufacturing packs with Jokers for the American market in 1871. The first Joker for the domestic British market was sold in 1874. Italians call Jokers "Jolly", for many early cards were labelled "Jolly Joker". The notion of a Joker was later transferred to the game of Poker where it was initially called the Mistigris. This happened around 1875, where it functioned as a wild card. Packs with two Jokers started to become the norm during the late 1940s for the game of
Canasta Canasta (; Spanish for "basket") is a card game of the rummy family of games believed to be a variant of 500 Rum. Although many variations exist for two, three, five or six players, it is most commonly played by four in two partnerships with tw ...
. Since the 1950s, German and Austrian packs have included three Jokers to play
German Rummy German Rummy or Rommé (german: Deutsches Rommé or ''Rommé mit Auslegen'') is the most popular form of the worldwide game, Rummy, played in Austria and Germany. It is a game for 2 to 6 players and is played with two packs of French playing cards ...
. In Poland, the third Joker is known as the blue Joker because the KZWP monopoly during the
Polish People's Republic The Polish People's Republic ( pl, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million nea ...
printed all third Jokers blue. In
Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sch ...
,
Zwickern Zwickern or Zwicker, is a German fishing card game for two to eight players played in Schleswig-Holstein in North Germany. It is an old game whose rules first appeared in 1930. It has been described as "a simpler and jollier version of Cassino", ...
packs come with six Jokers.


Appearance

Jokers do not have any standardized appearance across the card manufacturing industry. Each company produces their own depictions of the card. The publishers of playing cards trademark their Jokers, which have unique artwork that often reflect contemporary culture. Out of convention, Jokers tend to be illustrated as jesters. There are usually two Jokers per deck, often noticeably different. For instance, the
United States Playing Card Company The United States Playing Card Company (USPC, though also commonly known as USPCC) is a large American producer and distributor of playing cards. It was established in 1867 as Russell, Morgan & Co. and founded in its current incarnation in 1885. ...
(USPCC) prints their company's guarantee claim on only one. At times, the Jokers will each be colored to match the colors used for suits; e.g., there will be a red Joker and a black Joker. In games where the Jokers may need to be compared, the red, full-color, or larger-graphic Joker usually outranks the black, monochrome, or smaller-graphic one. If the Joker colors are similar, the Joker without a guarantee will outrank the guaranteed one. With the red and black Jokers, the red one can alternately be counted as a Heart/Diamond and the black one can alternately be counted as a Club/Spade. The Unicode for playing cards provide symbols for three Jokers: red, black, and white. Many decks do not provide the Joker with a corner index symbol; of those that do, the most common is a solid star (as is the case with Bee cards). It is also common for decks to simply display the word "JOKER" in the corner.
Bicycle A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-powered assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A is called a cyclist, or bicyclist. Bic ...
cards use a "US" monogram as the Joker index.


Collecting

Joker
collecting The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining items that are of interest to an individual ''collector''. Collections differ in a wide variety of respects, most obvio ...
has been popular for an unknown amount of time, but with the advent of the Internet and social media, it has emerged as a hobby. Many unusual Jokers are available for purchase online, while other collectible Jokers are catalogued online for viewing. ''
Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
'' has recognized Denoto de Santis, an Italian magician, as having the world's largest collection of Jokers.


Tarot and Tarock card games

The Joker is often compared to " (the) Fool" in the
Tarot The tarot (, first known as '' trionfi'' and later as ''tarocchi'' or ''tarocks'') is a pack of playing cards, used from at least the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play card games such as Tarocchini. From their Italian roots, ...
or Tarock decks. They share many similarities both in appearance and play function. In central Europe, the Fool, or ''
Sküs The trull is a trio of three special trump cards used in tarock games in Austria and other countries that have a much higher card value than the other trumps. The individual cards are known as trull cards (''Trullstücke''). The word ''trull'' i ...
'', is the highest trump; elsewhere as an "excuse" (''L'Excuse'') that can be played at any time to avoid following suit, but cannot win.


Cartomancy

Practitioners of
cartomancy Cartomancy is fortune-telling or divination using a deck of cards. Forms of cartomancy appeared soon after playing cards were first introduced into Europe in the 14th century. Huson, Paul (2004). ''Mystical Origins of the Tarot: From Ancien ...
often include a Joker in the standard 52-card deck with a meaning similar to the Fool card of Tarot. Sometimes, the two Jokers are used. An approach is to identify the "black" Joker with a rank of zero with the Fool and the "red" Joker with " the Magician", also known as "the Juggler", which is a card with a rank of one that is somewhat similar in interpretation and is considered the first step in the "Fool's Journey".


Use of the Joker in card games

In a standard deck in the US or Britain, there are usually two Jokers. In other countries, such as Germany, there are usually three Jokers in a pack. The Joker's use varies greatly. Many
card game A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card ...
s omit the cards entirely; as a result, Jokers are sometimes used as informal replacements for lost or damaged cards in a deck by simply noting the lost card's rank and suit on the Joker. Other games, such as a 25-card variant of
Euchre Euchre or eucre () is a trick-taking card game commonly played in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Great Britain, and the United States. It is played with a deck of 24, 28, or 32 standard playing cards. Normally there are four players, two on e ...
which uses the Joker as the highest trump, make it one of the most important in the game. Often, the Joker is a wild card, which allows it to represent other existing cards. The term "Joker's wild" originates from this practice. However, in Zwicker Jokers are higher value, matching and scoring cards while, in one variant, a normal suit card is the only one that is wild. The Joker can be a very beneficial card or a bad card to have. In Euchre it is often used to represent the highest trump. In Gin Rummy it is wild. However, in the children's game of
Old Maid An old maid is a spinster. Old maid or Old Maid may also refer to: Games *Old maid (card game), a simple game popular around the world, existing in many variants *, a German card game (variant of ) whose name translates as 'old maid' Film * ' ...
, a solitary Joker represents the Old Maid, the card to be avoided.


Role A role (also rôle or social role) is a set of connected behaviors, rights, moral obligation, obligations, beliefs, and social norm, norms as conceptualized by people in a social situation. It is an expected or free or continuously changing behavi ...
in multi-player games

*
Euchre Euchre or eucre () is a trick-taking card game commonly played in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Great Britain, and the United States. It is played with a deck of 24, 28, or 32 standard playing cards. Normally there are four players, two on e ...
, 500: As the highest trump or "top Bower". *
Canasta Canasta (; Spanish for "basket") is a card game of the rummy family of games believed to be a variant of 500 Rum. Although many variations exist for two, three, five or six players, it is most commonly played by four in two partnerships with tw ...
: The Joker, like the deuce, is a wild card. However, the Joker is worth 50 points in melding, as opposed to 20 for the deuce. * Gin Rummy: a wild card, able to be used as any necessary rank or suit to complete a meld. *Chase the Joker: An alternative version of
Old Maid An old maid is a spinster. Old maid or Old Maid may also refer to: Games *Old maid (card game), a simple game popular around the world, existing in many variants *, a German card game (variant of ) whose name translates as 'old maid' Film * ' ...
, where the Joker card is used instead of the Ace. *
Poker Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game w ...
: A Joker can be
wild Wild, wild, wilds or wild may refer to: Common meanings * Wild animal * Wilderness, a wild natural environment * Wildness, the quality of being wild or untamed Art, media and entertainment Film and television * ''Wild'' (2014 film), a 2014 A ...
, or can be a " bug", a limited form of wild card which can only be used to complete straights and flushes. *
War War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
: In some variations, beats all other cards. * Pitch: A point card in some variations. Jokers usually are marked as "High" and "Low", one outranking the other. *
Daifugō or , also known as Tycoon, is a Japanese shedding-type card game for three or more players played with a standard 52-card pack. The objective of the game is to get rid of all the cards one has as fast as possible by playing progressively stro ...
: a wild card, or a deuce (which ends the round and clears the discard pile). *
Crazy Eights Crazy Eights is a shedding-type card game for two to seven players and the best known American member of the Eights Group which also includes Pig and Spoons. The object of the game is to be the first player to discard all of their cards. The ga ...
: a "skip" card, playable on top of any other card, that forces the next player to lose a turn. * Spades: uncommon, but can fulfil one of two roles. When playing with three or six players, they are added to make the cards deal evenly (eighteen or nine cards each, respectively). They are either "junk" cards playable anytime that cannot win a trick, or they count as the two highest trumps (the two Jokers must be differentiable; the "big Joker" outranks the "little Joker"). They also can be used in conjunction with teammates cards to create a pseudo-"trump", i.e. an Ace of Hearts and Joker played together would be counted as an Ace of Spades, inferior only to a natural Ace of Spades. * Double King Pede: As the lowest-ranked card, but worth 18 points. *
Go Fish Go Fish or Fish is a card game usually played by two to five players,
although it can be played wi ...
: In a game with two players, the Joker pair is often used to bring the number of pairs to 27 and prevent a 13-13 tie. *
Dou dizhu ''Dou dizhu'' () is a card game in the genre of shedding and gambling. It is one of the most popular card games played in China. ''Dou dizhu'' is described as easy to learn but hard to master, requiring mathematical and strategic thinking as we ...
: Jokers are used as the highest value cards; one is little and one is big, usually the colored one being bigger. Both Jokers together is the only unbeatable play.


Role in patience (solitaire) games

Generally, the Joker is omitted from patience games as in many others of its type. However, there are variations of solitaire games where a Joker does take part, most often as a wild card. *
Forty Thieves Forty Thieves or 40 Thieves may refer to: * the story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves Groups of people * the Forty Thieves (New York gang), an 18th-century New York street gang *The Forty Thieves (New York City Common Council 1852–1853) * the ...
: the Joker is placed on the foundations, while the
natural card The following is a glossary of terms used in card games. Besides the terms listed here, there are thousands of common and uncommon slang terms. Terms in this glossary should not be game-specific (e.g. specific to Bridge, Hearts, Poker or Rummy), ...
is unavailable. Any applicable cards are placed over the Joker. When the natural card becomes available, it replaces the Joker, which in turn is placed on the top of the foundation pile. When the Joker is placed on an empty foundation, it stays there until an Ace appears. * FreeCell: the Joker functions the same way as mentioned above, but when the natural card it replaces becomes available and the Joker is placed on top, the Joker can be placed on another foundation. *
Golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...
: where Kings can be built, the Joker, whenever available, is placed on the wastepile as a wild card and any card can be placed over it. * Klondike: the Joker acts the same way as it is in Forty Thieves. It can also be built while it is still on the tableau. The United States Playing Card Company's version, created by Joli Quentin Kansil, uses two Jokers, with the black joker to be used as a wild black card and the red joker as a wild red card. *
Pyramid A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilat ...
: the Joker is discarded together with any available card. In this case, the stock is dealt one card at time and can be reused twice. * Aces Up: The Jokers are used to clear out a row and are sometimes referred to as "Joker Bombs". When a Joker is dealt into a column, the entire column is reshuffled into the stock and that particular Joker is removed from the game. This leaves an empty foundation slot and greatly increases the win rate.


References


Bibliography

* Porter, Ian (2010). "Classifying Non-standard Playing Cards" in ''The Playing-Card'', Vol. 38, No. 3 (Jan–Mar 2010). pp. 203–208.


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Joker (Playing Card) Playing cards Card game terminology