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

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff from Hosts dot com where smart Happens.

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<v Speaker 1>Hi Am Marshall Brain with today's question, why do they

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<v Speaker 1>include jokers and a deck of playing cards? Jokers are

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<v Speaker 1>one of those funny things. Many decks don't have jokers

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<v Speaker 1>and in most cases you can lose the jokers and

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<v Speaker 1>it doesn't matter. So why include them? And while we're

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<v Speaker 1>on the topic, where did any of the cards in

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<v Speaker 1>the deck come from? Why are there fifty two cards

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<v Speaker 1>with four suits and thirteen cards to a suit? According

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<v Speaker 1>to Britannica dot com, the fifty two card deck that

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<v Speaker 1>we used today is a modification of part of the

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<v Speaker 1>standard to row deck, made up of the major arcana

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<v Speaker 1>and the minor arcana minus the night cards. Probably around

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<v Speaker 1>the fifteenth century, the deck started settling into the modern

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<v Speaker 1>form that we know today. The joker, however, did not

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<v Speaker 1>here until sometime around the eighteen sixties. At that time,

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<v Speaker 1>the game of Yuker was extremely popular. It was later

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<v Speaker 1>unseated by bridge. In Yuker. Under the British rules, there

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<v Speaker 1>is a card known as the Imperial Bower or best Bower,

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<v Speaker 1>that trumps all the other cards. Decks of cards began

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<v Speaker 1>to include a special Imperial Bower card, and it later

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<v Speaker 1>morphed into the Joker card that we know today. Be

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