Jokers were added to the deck around the 1860s-long after card decks became common-to capitalize on the popularity of a game called euchre, from the Alsatian game juckerspiel. Sure, you can use one to stand in for a missing card-but if that’s their main purpose, why have a design on them at all?Īs HowStuffWorks explains, that wasn’t originally their main purpose. Beyond imbuing every deck of cards with a jesterly sense of fun, jokers have no real role in many games.
