The Joker is a special card found in most modern decks of playing cards, or a Mahjong tile in some Mahjong game sets.
It is believed that the term "Joker" comes from a mispronunciation of Juker, the German/Alsatian
name for the game Euchre. The card was originally introduced in about 1860 for games of that family to be used as the highest
trump. Catherine
Perry Hargrave documents jokers from 1862 and 1865 in her
book A History of Playing Cards. The 1862 card has a
tiger on it and the label "Highest
Trump", while the one from 1865 is inscribed "This card takes either Bower" and "Imperial Bower", or "Highest Trump Card". So it
may be that Euchre was the game for which the Joker was invented, not Poker because part of this confusion on the issue
may be because both games spread simultaneously northward on the Mississippi.
The Joker came to be represented as a clown or court jester by the 1880s and often still is today. There are usually 2 Jokers per
deck, often noticeably different. For instance Bicycle Playing Cards prints their company'
s guarantee claim on only one. More common traits are the appearance of colored and black/noncolored Jokers. At times the Jokers will each be colored to match the colors used for suits; there will be a
red Joker, and a black Joker. In games where the jokers
may need to be compared, the
red or full-color joker usually outranks the black-and-white one; if the joker colors are similar the joker without a guarantee will outrank the guaranteed one.
