Joker

philebus said:

Like the Joker, the Fool was a stand alone card from the other suits, plain or trumps. To me, this make the whole 56/22 division a little odd. Surely it should be 56/21/1.

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Many people refer to it that way, especially when talking about the 15th century decks, where written references tend to support this.

Mary

Ross G Caldwell said:

But to ask the "why", is to ask the unknowable, at this point.

Ross

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As someone who makes cards, I'd guess (but it's a guess) that the answer lies in the size of the paper sheets used. Probably there was space for an extra card so something was invented to fill it. It's still an issue in tarot card production today - 78 cards leave two spaces on the sheets. So one is a title card and the other?...

Of course, they were not doing lithography, so the issue of space on the paper would work quite differently. But when you see a "wild" card introduced I'd tend to look for very practical production reasons rather than anything else. Why waste expensive paper when you can add something of value?

I believe that's the reason that there are always two Jokers in a pack when Euchre only requires the one. Once that happened, games then developed to make use of both of them.

The Joker appears too in the latest Persona´s game Major Arcana (Persona 4):

http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Hunger_Arcana

http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130627221307/megamitensei/images/e/e4/0Jester.PNG


Considering the character that has that card and his relationship and differences with the game´s protagonist it´s logical to assume that the "Jester" as it´s called in that game is the Reversed Fool.


Even if the Joker is just the Reversed Fool it would be cool to have a tarot deck with a Joker card in it.

Are there tarot decks that have the joker ?