My Joker Taxonomy

Here's how the jokers are organized. I tried alphabetical but they all start with J...

Ten sections: animals, art, Christmas, entertainment cartoony, real people,  jesters, musical, travel, ads, and topsy turvy. Most sections has subsections. Some subsections have sub-subsections. When a joker could be put in two or more places (ie a topsy joker with Mickey Mouse), I have rules for which takes precedence.

Todays count: 5,392.😏 (Click for details, Dec 2019). The collection keeps growing and evolving. As of 1/1/21, all of the sections are now on the website but they are not current. I update my collection daily and my website less often.  

I recently took a historical view of the American jokers: if that interests you, start with this article about Dougherty , ARRCO, or Standard Jokers  Other views : how I frame jokers to put on the wall, whether I have all the jokers from the Joker Poster, and what resources I find useful.

1. Animal Jokers 



Animals: Flyers - Bee Boy

1. Cats  or  Dogs 
2. Flyers: Bees, Birds, Owls, Butterflies, & Dragons 
3. Horses , zebras, donkeys, giraffes ...
4. Monkeys, bears, and others with paws 
5. Animals with antlers, horns, and tusks
6. Reptiles, amphibians, sea creatures  
2. Art and Artsy Jokers
1. Beautiful art jokers including flowers, fruit, mermaids
2. Card-themed Jokers (YES, this is intentional) 
3. Mystical, deathly, and devils. Pirates too.
4. Masks
5. Statues 



Bicycle - Unicycle

3. Christmas Jokers with angels and cherubs
4. Entertainment Jokers: Animated
1. Cartoons: Peanuts, Betty Boop,  Alice In Wonderland  
2. SuperHeros  
3. Harry Potter Entertainment: 
   
4. Anime Japanese Jokers
5. Real People
1. Politicians: The binders now distinguish between American & European. Needs updating. Also, the American peoples such as Native Americans, American historical figures etc are in the travel section.
2. Star Wars
3. Movie Stars
4. Musicians. There's an Elvis section.
5. Comedians -TV Personalities Commentators
6. Historical and contemporary American. (There's also an Americana symbols section)
7. Historical International: Named Europeans, People of Color, Non-named Europeans
8. Plain people jokers (not celebrities)
9. Pin Up Girlie Glamour Jokers (ie erotica and porn) is split into bikini girls (the essentials covered), illustrations,  old fashioned,  Asian, and harder core.
10. Sports Jokers: Golf, Baseball, Football (American), 
6. Jester Jokers (not real people or celebrities)
1. Dancing with or without jesters wands 
2.  Performers with cards or without cards 
3. Juggling things 

   

   Juggling Jesters

4. Scatterman - The Cartamundi jester
5. Sitting - Forward vs Sideways
6. Jesters: STANDING jesters with Wands, Walking Jesters with Wands, NO WAND (standing still or walking)
7. Head Shots or Busts. On a stick, heads, hands no wand, hand with a wand  
8. Fighters! ie Jokers with swords, etc
9. Clown Jokers  
10. Jokers, not jesters, standing (or walking) 
    
7. Musical Jokers - Note this excludes real musicians which are in the real people section.
1. Stringed Instruments 
2. Wind Instruments
3. Percussion including piano.
4. Ensemble Trios
8. Travel Jokers (outdated post from 2017)
1. Vehicles
1. Bicycle Jokers, Skaters, Unicycles  
2. American places and Americana,  Congress Jokers 
1. American Scenery Jokers
2.  American people
3. Cowboys
4. Native Americans
5. People of Color
3. Non US Places
4. Maps
5. Old Europeans with names, Old European stereotypes
6. Chinese Jokers - Acquired Collection, Collected
9. Ads: 
1. Casinos 
2. Cigarettes, Drink, Desserts  97 + 18
3. Coca Cola Jokers   34    cars 35
4. Public Interest Messages
5. Logo type jokers, Geometric Designs 162
6. Ads   63      Text based jokers 150
7. Jokers promoting playing cards
10. Topsy Turvy - This has subsections that mirror the overall organization. The big ones are:
1. Animals - 40
2. Card Themed - 52
3. Music - 35
4. Ladies & Masks - 28
5. Jesters and clowns 65
6. People -61
7. Things - 32
11. Large, small, and weird-shaped jokers

Thoughts? Comments?

Real People: Actors

These jokers are real people but not comedians, musicians (including Elvis), politicians, sports figures, pin up erotic jokers, or ordinary people, they have their own sections (long ago, there was just the real people section).

Marilyn Monroe Jokers

The backs of Marilyn Monroe Jokers

Astute readers will notice that this MM joker was in backwards in the photographs of full pages below:

Back of the joker, Frontal of the diva

Real People, Actor Jokers. Mostly Actresses

The Backs of the Real People Actor Jokers

What to look at next? Let me suggest: 

Comedians - waiting to be photoed

Musicians (including Elvis), 

Politicians, 

sports figures

pin up erotic jokers,

Ordinary people, - waiting to be photoed

(long ago, there was just the real people section).