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joker — news, coverage & facts — IJR

Origin

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 and is first mentioned in a set of rules in 1868 where the blank specimen card is adapted for use in play. This gave rise to a variant game called "Euchre with the Joker" in which the blank card ranked above all the rest. While the term "best bower" appears in a satirical 1861 piece about the American Civil War, 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". 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. 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. 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.

Role in multi-player games

Euchre, 500: As the highest trump or "top Bower".

Canasta: Uses two or three Jokers per deck. 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.

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 Pedro: 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.

Bōzu mekuri: Uses Semimaru in an Uta-garuta deck as a joker. When drawn, the player may collect all discarded cards. However, if he is drawn on the last turn, then the player automatically loses instead.