Joker Card Meaning: Where the Joker Came From

The joker is the youngest card in the deck and the only one with no fixed role. It is a wild card in one game, ignored in the next, and the most decorated card in a collector's deck. It is also American, and about 160 years old.

Born in a game of euchre

In the 1860s, euchre was the most popular card game in America. In euchre, the two highest trumps are the Jacks — the right and left bowers. Players began adding an extra card that outranked them both: the best bower.

Card makers printed a special card for it, and by the 1870s it had taken on a jester's face. The most likely origin of the name is the game itself: euchre was often called "juker" in German-speaking areas of America, and "the juker card" became "the joker".

Why there are two

At first a deck had one joker. A second was added later, often printed differently, as a spare — and because some games, such as canasta, found a use for both. Many games still use none, which is why the jokers go back in the box.

The jester design

The image of a court jester, or fool, came naturally: the joker stands outside the ranks and suits, as the jester stood outside the court's hierarchy. A jester could mock the King without being punished, and the joker can beat the King without belonging to a suit.

The joker and the Fool

People often say the joker descends from the Fool in tarot. That is not quite right: the joker came from euchre, two centuries after tarot was invented. But they are close cousins in meaning. In tarot, the Fool is numbered zero — the card outside the sequence, standing for beginnings, freedom and a leap into the unknown. When playing cards are used for fortune-telling, the joker is usually read the same way.

Read the Fool tarot meaning.

What the joker means as a symbol

• Wildness and possibility. A wild card can become anything.
• The outsider who breaks the rules — and is free because of it.
• Truth through humour, like the court jester who could say what nobody else dared.
• Unpredictability. "The joker in the pack" is the one factor nobody can plan for.

In life and in tattoos, a joker card usually means some mixture of these: someone who refuses to be ranked, plays by their own rules, or takes life lightly.

Joker card meaning in tarot and spiritual readings

With an ordinary deck used for cartomancy, the joker most often means a surprise or a new start — an unexpected turn that can go either way. Some readers leave it out entirely; others treat it as "the querent", the person asking.

Collecting jokers

Because the joker has no fixed design, it is where a deck's artist has the most fun. Some collectors keep only the jokers. A good themed deck — a Wonderland deck with a Cheshire Cat grin, a pirate deck's rogue — tells you most of what you need to know about it from the joker alone.