The Joker is a playing card found in most modern French-suited card decks, as an addition to the standard four suits (Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, and Spades). Since the second half of the 20th century, they have also been found in Spanish- and Italian-suited decks, excluding stripped decks.
The Joker originated in the United States during the Civil War, and was created as a trump card for the game of Euchre. It has since been adopted into many other card games, 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. Zwicker which has six Jokers with this function).
By contrast, a wild card is any card that may be used to represent another card or cards – it does not need be a Joker.
The game of Euchre is credited with the introduction of the Joker into card games. However, Euchre originally did not use jokers. 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.[1] According to card game historian, David Parlett, the Joker was added to a 32‑card pack in the 1850s specifically for the game of Euchre[2] and is first mentioned in a set of rules in 1868 where the blank specimen card is adapted for use in play.[3] This gave rise to a variant game called "Euchre with the Joker" in which the blank card ranked above all the rest.[3] While the term "best bower" appears in a satirical 1861 piece about the American Civil War,[4] this may only refer to the Right Bower and not a special card produced for that purpose. Samuel Hart is credited with printing the first illustrated "Best Bower" card in 1863 with his "Imperial Bower".[5][6] 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 clowns and jesters such as Elizabethan jester Richard Tarlton.
The idea behind the three top cards in Euchre appears to have originated from Germany where the games Juckerspiel and Bester Bube ("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.[7][8] One British manufacturer, Charles Goodall, was manufacturing packs with Jokers for the American market in 1871.[9] The first Joker for the domestic British market was sold in 1874.[10] Italians call Jokers "Jolly", for many early cards were labelled "Jolly Joker".[11]
The notion of a Joker was later transferred to the game of Poker where it was initially called the Mistigris.[12] This happened around 1875, where it functioned as a wild card.[13] Packs with two Jokers started to become the norm during the late 1940s for the game of Canasta.[14][15][16] Since the 1950s, German and Austrian packs have included three Jokers to play German Rummy. In Poland, the third Joker is known as the blue Joker because the KZWP monopoly during the Polish People's Republic printed all third Jokers blue. In Schleswig-Holstein, Zwicker packs come with six Jokers.[17]
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.[18] 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 (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 cards use a "US" monogram as the Joker index.
Joker collecting 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 has recognized Denoto de Santis, an Italian magician, as having the world's largest collection of Jokers.[19]
The Joker is often compared to "(the) Fool" in the Tarot or Tarock decks. They share many similarities both in appearance and in play function. In central Europe, the Fool, or Sküs, is the highest trump; elsewhere as an "excuse" (L'Excuse) that can be played at any time to avoid following suit, but cannot win.
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 games 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 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, a solitary Joker represents the Old Maid, the card to be avoided.
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.
