History of the Joker Card: Why do Cards Come with a Joker?

Before the Joker: Evolution of the Jack

Before inventing the Joker, for its typical roles as a trump and a wild card, card players often used one of the four Jacks. The Jack card has been part of the 52-card deck since the 15th century when French manufacturers introduced it as the weakest of the three face (or court) cards. At that time, these court cards were the Knave, which was the Jack in all but name; the Cavalier, soon to be replaced by the Queen; and the King, whose identity held out through centuries. The King was the highest-ranking card in the first European card games. Nevertheless, in the 17th century, French and British players invented several games that promoted one of the Jacks to the highest position. Among them was the English game Lanterloo (or “Loo”), often cited as a milestone in transforming the card Jack into the Joker.¹

Lanterloo promoted the Jack of Clubs (♣) (Figure 1) to the highest position, making it a trump card that could beat both the King and the Queen. The Lanterloo players called the elevated Jack “Pam,” which was an abbreviated form of “Pamphilus,” a name derived from a medieval poem titled “Pamphilus, of Love.”² In the poem, Pamphilus is a young man of noble birth but low income who marries up by seducing a beautiful rich girl.³ His social promotion explains why players associated this character with the Jack of Lanterloo – the lowest court card that rose in rank.

The 17th-century French also named the elevated Jack “Pam,” and their version of Lanterloo was called “Pamphile.” In addition to promoting a Jack, the French game gave it another role later typically performed by the Joker: that of a wild card. If a player had a set of four cards of the same suit (a flush), they could add Pam as a substitute for any card they needed to make a five-card flush.⁴

Some typical Joker roles had already developed in 17th-century Europe long before the invention of the Joker card. At that time, the promoted Jack named “Pam” served as a trump card and a wild card in two popular games: Lanterloo and Pamphile.

The origin of the Joker card: Euchre

The game that gave rise to the Joker was Euchre – a card game that followed the trend of promoting Jacks, initiated by Lanterloo. Euchre originated in 18th-century Alsace, a German-speaking region of France, and was first called “Jucker.” The original Jucker game elevated two Jacks to the highest-ranking and second-ranking positions. Each of these Jacks was called “Bauer,” which in German means “Jack” but also “farmer.” In the 19th century, immigrants from Alsace brought the Jucker game to the United States. Here, the English-speaking players transformed the German terminology of the game. To make the German names sound more familiar, they started to spell “Jucker” as “Euchre” and “Bauer” as “Bower.” The Americans called the highest-ranking Jack the “Right Bower” or the “Best Bower” and the second-ranking Jack – the “Left Bower.” The earliest published rules of Euchre to apply this terminology come from 1845.⁵

Around 1857, Euchre players added the third Bower to the game. In addition to the two promoted Jacks—the Right and the Left Bower—they introduced a new card that could beat both. This card took over the name of the “Best Bower” (Figure 2) and was sometimes also called the “Imperial Bower.” Initially, the new Best Bower was simply a blank card.⁶ Soon, however, the famous American playing card manufacturer Samuel Hart printed the first ornamented Best Bower cards.⁷

In 1875, Euchre players used either blank or ornamented Best Bowers, depending on what they had on hand. Around this time, those who played the variant called “Railroad Euchre” started to refer to the additional card as “the Joker.” The 1875 edition of The American Hoyle, a compendium of fashionable games, claimed that in the Railroad Euchre, there is “an additional blank card which is usually called the ‘Joker,’ or imperial trump.”⁸

Euchre was played with 32-card decks comprised of four suits, each with three face cards, an Ace, and four numerical cards from 7 to 10.⁹ These were the first decks to which card manufacturers added the Joker (Figure 3). But before the end of the 19th century, the Joker joined a full-size 52-card deck, allowing players to adapt this card to other games. Most famously, Poker players started to use Jokers as wild cards.¹⁰

The first Jokers appeared around 1875 in the American card game Railroad Euchre. They served as trump cards and evolved from the promoted Jack called “the Best Bower” in the earlier Euchre. By the end of the 19th century, the Joker also started to act as a wild card in Poker.

The origin of the Joker’s name

“Joker” is probably a corrupted version of the German word “Jucker,” which referred to both a card game (the ancestor of Euchre) and the card Jack.¹¹ Throughout history, the Jacks used as trumps or wild cards were called different names, including “Pam” in the games Lanterloo and Pamphile and “the Best Bower” in early Euchre. The name “Pam” addressed the rank of the card. It was perfect for the promoted Jack because it derived from the literary character of a young man who advanced in the social hierarchy. The German terms “Bauer” and “Jucker” also made sense: they both referred to the Jack card, whose elevated rank was the distinguishing trait of Euchre. In contrast, “Bower” and “Joker” had nothing to do with the role of the promoted Jack in the Euchre game – they only misspelled the original German terms “Bauer” and “Jucker.” In archaic English, “bower” was an anchor, a pergola, or a bedroom,¹² and “joker” was a jester – an entertainer living in a royal court.¹³

It did not take much time for the English-speaking card players to associate the name “Joker” with someone who makes jokes, a jack-in-the-box (Figure 4), or a jester. In the late 1870s and early 1880s, some producers labeled their Jokers as “Jolly Jokers.” By the end of the 19th century, the association with fun and jokes led to representing Jokers as court jesters, which today is the most widespread Joker card design.¹⁴

The name “Joker” most likely comes from the German word “Jucker,” which referred both to the card Jack and the Alsatian ancestor of the Euchre game. After the name “Joker” was coined, the players started to relate it to jokes and jesters.

The origin of the Joker’s appearance

The Joker card most commonly features a court jester, which fits both its name and the design of the three court cards (the King, the Queen, and the Jack), usually representing members of a medieval court. However, the image of a jester was not the original design associated with the Joker or its predecessor, the Best Bower of the Euchre game. The first Best Bower, a card that beat the two Bowers (highest-ranking Jacks) in Euchre, was simply a blank card. In the 1850s, Samuel Hart started printing ornamented Best Bower cards, and soon, other card manufacturers followed suit. These oldest Best Bowers usually featured the producer’s name and the card’s name with an occasional explanation of its role (e.g., “Imperial Bower or Highest Trump Card: This Card Takes either Bower”; Figure 5). Abstract ornaments or drawings of animals or people in various outfits and poses accompanied the text.¹⁵

Changing Best Bower’s name to “Joker” led to associating it with the image of a court jester. By sheer coincidence, the approximated English reading of the German word “Jucker” is “joker,” which, among others, means “jester.” Jesters who worked as king or queen’s entertainers and advisers were indispensable to medieval European royal courts. Nevertheless, in the era that most influenced the European playing card design—the 15th century—they did not make it to the standard deck. The 52-card deck used in 15th-century Britain and France included three face cards: the King, the Queen, and their courtier – the Knave or Jack. Since then, the three figures’ garments and attributes (e.g., weapons) have had a stylized medieval-like look. The Joker card, introduced in the 19th century, complemented the court cards by featuring another typical member of a European court dressed in medieval clothes.

Paradoxically, although the Joker card is the most recent addition to the Anglo-American 52-card deck, its design is more conservative than that of the court cards. In the 15th century, the court cards featured entire figures, and the appearance of the Kings, the Queens, and the Jacks varied significantly among manufacturers. By the 19th century, the court cards had become double-headed for the players’ convenience, and their design had been standardized. However, the 19th-century innovation, the Joker, retained the traditional format of an asymmetrical card featuring a whole human figure (Figure 6). There has never been any standard design for the Joker. Whereas a jester, clown, or harlequin are the most iconic themes, you can also find Jokers featuring animals, historical, fantastic, or cartoon characters, items, abstract patterns, and many more. Because of this freedom in design, the Joker is often trademarked by playing card manufacturers.¹⁶

The Joker’s most iconic look—a medieval court jester—originated in the 19th-century United States. It alluded to the card’s name and complemented the three court figures (King, Queen, and Jack) on face cards. However, since their creation, Jokers have come in various designs, not necessarily including the image of a jester.

Is the Joker card related to Tarot?

A popular theory derives the Joker from one of the Tarot cards, the Fool. Tarot is a deck of 78 cards used for playing card games and divination. It includes a 56-card “regular” set, divided into four suits with ten numerical cards and four court cards per suit. The remaining 22 cards are the so-called “picture cards,” representing figures such as the Sun, the World, the Devil, or the Empress. Among them is the Fool – the only picture card that does not bear a Roman numeral.¹⁷

The Fool and the Joker are superficially similar. Still, from what we know about the evolution of European playing cards, neither of them could evolve directly from the other. Playing cards arrived in Europe in the 14th century, first in Catalonia and later in Italy and other countries. Since the cards came from the Arab culture, they were initially of an Arab style. A typical deck of the time included 52 cards divided into four suits—Swords, Clubs or Batons, Cups, and Coins—with three male court cards and ten numerical cards per suit. This structure was the starting point for the development, in the 15th century, of numerous regional European decks: Spanish, German, Italian, French, etc. Among all the variants, only one of the Italian decks—the one we currently know as the Tarot deck—ever included the Fool card. Meanwhile, the Joker has only appeared in the 52-card standard deck, which was first created in France by combining some elements of Spanish and German decks but not the Italian ones. So, in the early history of European playing cards, there is no connection between the Fool and the Joker.¹⁸

The role of the Fool card has also been different from that of the Joker. Many people do not know that the original purpose of the Tarot deck was not fortunetelling but playing a card game.¹⁹ In the game of Tarot, the Fool was traditionally the only picture card that was not a trump. Instead, it released players from the obligation to follow suit, thus saving a card that they could otherwise lose.²⁰ Meanwhile, the Joker evolved from a promoted Jack, and its original role in the American game of Euchre was the highest-ranking trump card.

Finally, there is a question of the design. The Euchre’s Joker and Tarot appeared in the United States roughly at the same time. The first American book to discuss Tarot cartomancy was published in 1872,²¹ while the first Jokers called by this name and depicted as court jesters started to be produced in the 1870s (Figure 3). This chronological coincidence could, theoretically, suggest that the Tarot’s Fool inspired the design of the first Jokers. However, the Fool cards that the 19th-century Americans used did not represent jesters.

Europe has known the game of Tarot since the 15th century, when the Fools were represented not as jesters but as beggars, vagabonds, or drunkards (Figure 7). Among the 16th-century Fools that have survived to our time are, e.g., a drunkard lying on his back, supporting a jar of wine with his legs, or a fully armed, urinating soldier with a snail coming out from his helmet.²² In the 18th century, the French occultists repurposed the Tarot deck for divination. They particularly liked the design of the so-called Tarot de Marseilles – a deck produced in France since the 17th century,²³ which continued to depict the Fool as a vagabond (Figure 8). The first American tarotists drew from this background. They were not interested in the game of Tarot but instead influenced by the French occultists and their secret societies.²⁴ The Americans also, apparently, imported their Tarot cards from Europe. In 1885, the anonymous author of an article about esoteric Tarot claimed that no manufacturer would produce Tarot cards in America at that time. He wished to have just one that would make cards properly as it had been done in Marseilles.²⁵ Thus, not only did the American producers invent the Joker before they started to print Fool cards, but the Fool they might have come across in the late 19th century was not a jester but a Marseilles-type vagabond.

Although the Joker and the Fool cards may seem similar, they have no historical relationship. The Joker and the Fool originated in different countries and times. In card games, they had opposite functions, and initially, they portrayed different figures (the jester and the vagabond, respectively). Thus, the Joker did not evolve from the Fool.

How did the Joker make it into the Batman Universe?

In 1940, the Joker card inspired a young Detective Comics (DC) cartoonist, Jerry Robinson, to sketch a villain whose popularity would eventually surpass his wildest dreams, the Joker. One year after DC, run by Bob Kane, created the superhero Batman, they were finally ready to release a comic book dedicated entirely to Batman’s adventures.²⁶ Batman #1 was to include several stories featuring different villains. Robinson wanted one of them to have a sense of humor and since his family was always fond of playing cards, Robinson quickly thought of the Joker. Based on the playing card from a deck lying around in his studio, he drew the first sketch of a clown with a sinister smile.²⁷ This project eventually made it to the opening panel of the first-ever Joker story as one of the cards held by the villain²⁸ (Figure 9).

Working on Robinson’s idea, Bill Finger and Bob Kane then created the complete character of the Joker. Finger used a picture from a 1928 silent movie, The Man Who Laughs as a further inspiration.²⁹ The movie, based on a novel by the French writer Victor Hugo, told the story of Gwynplaine, son of an anti-royalist lord, sold to child traffickers by order of the English king. To avoid future identification of the boy, a surgeon transformed him into a clown, molding his features into a permanent grin. The characterization of the German actor Conrad Veidt, who played Gwynplaine, largely influenced the final looks of the DC Joker. In the silent movie, lip makeup and the caps on Veidt’s teeth highlight his grotesque grin; his hair is fashioned after a popular male hairstyle of the 1920s (Figure 10). All these features—the unsettling grin, red lips, large teeth, and sleeked-back hair (though green, to make it more clownish)—made it to the iconic image of the Joker, drawn for Batman #1 by Bob Kane (Figure 9; compare with Figure 10).³⁰

The inspiration with The Man Who Laughs returns periodically in the Joker comic books and movies; for example, the 2019 movie Joker, starring Joaquin Phoenix, draws extensively from Victor Hugo’s concept and plot. Nevertheless, it is the association with the playing cards that has lied at the foundation of the Joker’s personality and behavior from the very beginning. In the pioneer 1940 Batman issue, the Joker uses Joker cards as his business cards and refers to himself with puns like, “The Joker is still a trump card!”³¹ He also kills with cards; in Batman #1, these are ordinary playing cards infused with poison, while in later cartoons and video games, they are razor-sharp throwing weapons made of metal.³² The first origin tale of the Joker, published in 1951 by Bill Finger, connects the Joker’s disfigurement to playing cards. Running from a failed robbery at the factory of the Playing Card Company, the villain jumps into a vat of toxins, from which he emerges with the face of the Joker.³³ Finally, the most common role of the Joker card, the wild card, accounts for the villain’s impersonation skills. For instance, in the 2008 movie The Dark Knight, the Joker tricks people by dressing as a bank robber, nurse, or policeman.

In 1940, Jerry Robinson was charged with designing a new antagonist for the comic book superhero Batman. Robinson’s first sketch was based on the Joker card he owned. Next, Bob Kane and Bill Finger combined the typical features of the Joker card with the image of Gwynplaine from a 1928 silent movie to create the iconic character of the Joker.

Why do cards come with a Joker?

Today, the Joker card is a must in numerous card games, both multiplayer and solitaire. Its most traditional role, originating in the 19th-century game Euchre, has been that of the trump card. In Euchre and its derivative, The Five Hundred, the Joker is the highest trump, meaning whoever plays it wins the trick.³⁴ In some variations of Spades for four players, the same role is performed by two Jokers, of which one ranks as “big joker” (the highest trump) and the other as “small joker” (the second trump).³⁵

Another widely known function of the Joker is that of a wild card, meaning that it can substitute for any other card (Figure 11). One of the first and most famous games to use Jokers as wild cards was Poker. In contrast to Euchre, which is played with a shortened (32- or 24-card pack plus the Joker), Poker requires a full-size 52-card pack. When producers started to add Jokers to the standard deck, increasing the number of cards to 54, Poker players gave the Jokers the role of wild cards. Later, this idea spread to other card games. One of the most popular games to use Jokers as wild cards is Rummy; another is Rummy’s relative, Canasta.³⁶

However, in some games, the Joker is not a beneficial card to have. This is the case in Old Maid, where the players aim to discard all their cards, laying them on the table in pairs (for example, two Kings, two Nines, etc.). The player who does not have a pair to discard draws a card from his neighbor’s hand. The only unpaired card is the Joker, called “the Old Maid,” and whoever is left with it at the end of the game – loses.³⁷

Finally, although traditional solitaire card games have not used Jokers, the presence of these cards in the pack inspired some players to create new variations of their favorite patience games. The most straightforward use of a Joker is to replace a blocked card with it. Such a move takes advantage of one of the Joker’s traditional roles—that of a wild card—and increases our chances of solving any solitaire. In Aces Up, the Joker has a different function – it acts as a “Joker bomb.” The player deals four cards and discards all the cards of the same suit save for the highest ranking; the game is won when only the Aces, considered the highest of all, remain. With each deal, it becomes harder to remove cards as the piles grow taller and taller – but the Joker dealt on a pile “blows it up.” All cards from the pile return to the undealt stock, leaving an empty slot and increasing the chances to win.³⁸

After the Joker was invented in the 19th century, many multi-player and some single-player card games adopted it. The Joker’s most typical roles are the trump (e.g., in Euchre or Spades) and the wild card (e.g., in Poker or Rummy), but it can also be a card to avoid (e.g., in Old Maid).

References

1. ^ Parlett 1990: 186.
2. ^ Parlett 1990: 186.
3. ^ Garbaty 1967.
4. ^ https://www.parlettgames.uk/histocs/euchre.html.
5. ^ Dummett 1980: 27, n. 37; Parlett 1990: 190; https://www.parlettgames.uk/histocs/euchre.html.
6. ^ Dummett 1980: 27, n. 37; Parlett 1990: 190–191.
7. ^ Hargrave 1966: 336, 362; Laird 2009: 290.
8. ^ The American Hoyle 1875: 233.
9. ^ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euchre#Earliest_rules_(1844).
10. ^ Parlett 1990: 191.
11. ^ Parlett 1990: 191; https://www.britannica.com/topic/euchre.
12. ^ https://webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/bower.
13. ^ https://webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/joker.
14. ^ Hargrave 1966: 345; Parlett 1990: 191; https://www.i-p-c-s.org/wp/joker/; Parlett 2023.
15. ^ Hargrave 1966: 348, 351, 352, 355; https://www.i-p-c-s.org/wp/joker/.
16. ^ Laird 2009: 290.
17. ^ Dummett 1980: 3.
18. ^ Dummett 1980: 7–8.
19. ^ Decker and Dummett 2019: ix.
20. ^ Dummett 1980: 166, 169.
21. ^ Decker and Dummett 2019: 326n1.
22. ^ Dummett 1980: 86n57.
23. ^ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot_of_Marseilles#Later_history.
24. ^ Decker and Dummett 2019: xi.
25. ^ “The Taro” 1885: 127.
26. ^ Finger and Kane 1940.
27. ^ Tollin 1975: 2–3; https://web.archive.org/web/20131015081859/http://www.rocketllama.com/blog-it/2009/07/21/interview-meet-the-jokers-maker-jerry-robinson/.
28. ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20120204122050/http://franklovece.com/webexclusives.html.
29. ^ Hanerfeld 1967; https://web.archive.org/web/20120723035747/http://www.rocketllama.com/blog-it/2009/08/05/interview-the-jokers-maker-tackles-the-man-who-laughs/.
30. ^ Tollin 1975: 3.
31. ^ Finger and Kane 1940: 7, 63.
32. ^ https://batman.fandom.com/wiki/Razor-sharp_Playing_Cards.
33. ^ Detective Comics #168, National Comics Publications, 1951: 13.
34. ^ https://www.pagat.com/euchre/euchre.html, Parlett 1990: 192.
35. ^ https://www.pagat.com/auctionwhist/spades.html.
36. ^ Parlett 1990: 191.
37. ^ Mulac 1946: 140.
38. ^ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joker_(playing_card)#Role_in_patience_(solitaire)_games.

Cited works

The American Hoyle; or Gentleman’s Hand-Book of Games. New York: Dick & Fitzgerald, 1875 (10th edition); https://ia601505.us.archive.org/23/items/americanhoyleorg00dick_1/americanhoyleorg00dick_1.pdf, accessed November 17, 2023.

Decker, Ronald and Michael Dummett. A History of the Occult Tarot. Richmond: Duckworth, 2019.

Dummett, Michael. The Game of Tarot: from Ferrara to Salt Lake City. London: Duckworth, 1980.

Finger, Bill, and Bob Kane. Batman #1. Detective Comics, 1940.

Garbaty, Thomas Jay. “Pamphilus, de Amore: An Introduction and Translation,” The Chaucer Review 2 (1967), 108–34.

Hanerfeld, Mark. “Con-tinued,” Batmania 14 (1967), 8–10. https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=11970, accessed 17 November, 2023.

Hargrave, Catherine Perry. A History of Playing Cards and a Bibliography of Cards and Gaming. New York: Dover Publications, 1966.

Laird, Jay. “History of Playing Cards” [in:] Encyclopedia of Play in Today’s Society, ed. Rodney P. Carlisle. Vol. 1. Los Angeles: Sage Publications, 2009, pp. 288–293.

Mulac, Margaret E. The Game Book. New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1946.

Parlett, David. The Oxford Guide to Card Games. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.

Parlett, David. “Euchre” [in:] Encyclopedia Britannica, 2023, https://www.britannica.com/topic/euchre, accessed September 19, 2023.

“The Taro,” The Platonist 2 (1885), 126–128.

Tollin, Anthony. “Profile on Jerry Robinson – creator of the Joker,” Amazing World of DC Comics 4 (1975), 2–7. https://cacb.wordpress.com/2009/02/08/profile-on-jerry-robinson-creator-of-the-joker/, accessed November 17, 2023.

Figures

1. The oldest precursor of the Joker: Jack of Clubs, ca. 1656–1664. Author: Pierre Leroux. Currently at the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
2. The Best Bower card used in Euchre, 19th century. Hargrave 1966: 346.
3. One of the earliest Joker cards, 1878. Currently at the British Museum. Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
4. A caricature titled “Euchered,” 1884. The card in the front depicts a baby jack-in-the-box captioned “The Little Joker.” Author: F.C., Popular Graphic Arts. Currently at the Library of Congress. Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
5. Samuel Hart’s Imperial Bower, ca. 1872. Dating after Simon Wintle’s “Samuel Hart, 1846–1871.” World Web Playing Card Museum. Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
6. Joker card, late 20th century. Photographed by Julia Madajczak.
7. The oldest surviving Fool card: the Visconti-Sforza pack, 1466 (see Dummett 1980: 68–69). Author: Bonifacio Bembo, Antonio Cicognara. Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
8. The Fool of the Tarot de Marseilles, 1701–1715. Author: Jean Dodal. Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
9. The opening panel of the first Joker story, drawn by Bob Kane and featuring the Joker card by Jerry Robinson. Text from the caption removed. Batman #1, 1940. © DC Comics.
10. Conrad Veidt as Gwynplaine in the 1928 The Man Who Laughs, Universal Pictures.
11. The Joker acting as a wild card (replacing the Three of Diamonds) in Rummy. Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Author: Adamt.