Playing card
An Italian Joker card
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 need ☀️ not be a Joker.
Origin [ edit ]
Imperial Bower, the earliest Joker, by Samuel Hart, c. 1863
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. 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 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".[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. 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]
Appearance [ edit ]
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.
Collecting [ edit ]
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]
Tarot and Tarock ☀️ card games [ edit ]
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.
Use of ☀️ the Joker in card games [ edit ]
Three Jokers and four Aces by the Trefl Playing Card Company of Poland ☀️ with its characteristic third blue Joker
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.
Role in multi-player games [ edit ]
Euchre, 500: As the highest trump or "top Bower".
Canasta: The Joker, like the deuce, ☀️ is a wild card. However, the Joker is worth fifty points in melding, as opposed to twenty 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, where the Joker card is used instead of the Ace.
Poker: A Joker can be ☀️ wild, or can be a "bug", a limited form of wild card which can be used only to complete straights ☀️ and flushes.
War: 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: a wild card, or a deuce (which ends the round and clears the ☀️ discard pile).
Crazy Eights: 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 any time ☀️ 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", ☀️ e.g. an Ace of Hearts and a Joker played together could 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: In the pair-forming ☀️ variant played between two players, the Joker pair is often used to bring the number of pairs to 27 and ☀️ prevent a 13–13 tie.
Dou dizhu: 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 [ edit ☀️ ]
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: the Joker is placed on ☀️ the foundations, while the natural card 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: 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: 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 [ edit ]
