Why do they include jokers in a deck of playing cards? - podcast episode cover

Why do they include jokers in a deck of playing cards?

Oct 03, 20112 min
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Episode description

The joker is an obscure and (according to some) useless addition to a deck of modern playing cards -- but it was originally a powerful card. Discover the history of the joker card and the modern card deck in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com.

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Transcript

Speaker 1

Welcome to Brainstuff from Hosts dot com where smart Happens. Hi Am Marshall Brain with today's question, why do they include jokers and a deck of playing cards? Jokers are one of those funny things. Many decks don't have jokers and in most cases you can lose the jokers and it doesn't matter. So why include them? And while we're on the topic, where did any of the cards in the deck come from? Why are there fifty two cards

with four suits and thirteen cards to a suit? According to Britannica dot com, the fifty two card deck that we used today is a modification of part of the standard to row deck, made up of the major arcana and the minor arcana minus the night cards. Probably around the fifteenth century, the deck started settling into the modern form that we know today. The joker, however, did not here until sometime around the eighteen sixties. At that time, the game of Yuker was extremely popular. It was later

unseated by bridge. In Yuker. Under the British rules, there is a card known as the Imperial Bower or best Bower, that trumps all the other cards. Decks of cards began to include a special Imperial Bower card, and it later morphed into the Joker card that we know today. Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how Stuff Work staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. The house

Stuff Works. I Find app has arrived. Download it today on iTunes.

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