The Joker
Around
the year 1857, Americans invented a new card that was soon to be known as
the Joker. Early Jokers were inscribed as the "Best Bower," the
highest card in the game of Euchre. Since
the game was sometimes also called "Juker," it is thought that
the Best Bower card might have been referred to as the "Juker card"
which eventually evolved into "Joker." By the 1880s, certainly,
the card had come to depict a jocular imp, jester or clown. Many other images
were also used, especially as Jokers became vehicles for social satire and
commercial advertising. Similarly, the backs of cards were used to promote
ideas, products and services, and to depict famous landmarks, events —
and even fads.
The picture shows an early Joker, c1870. From the US maker Samuel Hart & Co. This card is inscribed as the Imperial Bower or the Highest Trump Card that "takes either Bower". This annotation helps suport the theory that the Joker did in fact originate in the game if Euchre. In Euchre two of the Jacks are named "Right Bower" and "Left Bower". The word "Bower" is believed to be a corruption of the German word "Bauer" used in Alsace, from where Euchre or Juker originated as the ordinary word for Jack.
The Joker arrived in Europe in the 1880s along with the game of Poker. It was gradually incorporated into French-suited packs with 52 cards.
After it was introduced in Euchre, the joker was subsequently also adopted in some versions of Poker, Rummy and other games as a wild card that could be used as a substitute for any desired card.
52-card French-suited packs almost always come with at least two additional jokers, which are required for some games. Some games that use jokers require them to be distinguishable from each other, so in many modern packs the jokers are printed in different colors (usually red and black, or colored and plain), or given different pictures.
The joker retains its original role as highest trump in some trick-taking games such as 500. Other games, including 100 and some variations of Bid Whist and Spades use both jokers as top trumps. The jokers also act as high cards in some climbing games such as Zheng Shangyou.
Another type of use for the joker is as a card with a specially high capture value and point value in some fishing games. In the game of Zwickern (from Schleswig-Holstein in Germany) up to six jokers have been used, though three is more usual. The Lithuanian game Karuselé uses up to four jokers in a similar way.
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