Jokers Session

An alternate theory is that the Joker was originally developed for the game Poker as a wild card; however, this is largely discredited in favor of the Euchre theory. Confusion on this issue may stem from the fact that both games spread simultaneously northward on the Mississippi.
The Joker came to be represented as a clown or court jester by the 1880s, due to its assumed name and also probably borrowing from The Fool in tarot cards (predecessors to the French Tarot Nouveau, which depict The Fool as a lute-playing jester, were becoming popular in Europe around the same time).