| Joker | |
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Real Name |
Joker |
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First Appearance |
Unknown |
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Created by |
Unknown |
Origin[]
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. Italians call Jokers "Jolly", for many early cards were labelled "Jolly Joker".
The Joker originated in the United States during the Civil War, and was created as a trump card for the game of Euchre. Cards labelled "Joker" began appearing around the late 1860s, with some depicting clowns and jesters such as Elizabethan jester Richard Tarlton.
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.
There are usually two Jokers per deck, often noticeably different. 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 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.
Public Domain Comic Appearances[]
- A-1 Comics #1 (Kerry Drake) - Streamer Kelly, a firefighter, apprehends an arsonist called the Joker that leaves their namesake's playing card behind as a calling card.
- Racquet Squad in Action #4 - Jasper the waiter helps gambler Jerry Day win big at the 400 Club through cold decking, substituting a rigged deck of cards for the original, while himself not dealing. He is stopped in the nick of time by the clever substitution of a third deck containing mostly Jokers.
- New Funnies #85 - On the comic cover, Raggedy Ann, Oswald the Rabbit, Felix the Cat, Raggedy Andy, Charlie Chicken and more appear in playing cards, all are on aces except Charlie Chicken who's on the "joker card".
- Feature Comics #87 - Perky goes to the Land of Poker where all then inhabitants are Playing Cards similar to the ones found in Alice in the WonderLand. There he meets the Joker who turns in the Ten of Diamonds at the end of the story.
Notes[]
- 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.
- The Joker playing card was one of the inspirations for the Batman villain of the same name.