My Joker Taxonomy

Here's how the jokers are organized. I tried alphabetical but they all start with J. I tried by color but ... and so here’s my system.

There are ten sections: animals, art, Christmas, entertainment cartoony, real people,  jesters, musical, travel, ads, and topsy turvy. Each section has subsections. Some of the subsections have sub-subsections. When a joker could count in 2 or more places (ie a topsy joker with Mickey Mouse), I have rules for which takes precedence.

Todays count: 5,392.😏 (Click to see the details, Dec 2019).

This organization or taxonomy keeps evolving.  Many sections are now on the website. But they are maybe not current. I update my collection daily and my website much less often.  I recently started taking a historical view of the American jokers: if that interests you, start with this article about Dougherty, he arrived in Brooklyn in the 1800s and became a famous (and rich!) playing card manufacturer. 

I present the taxonomy largely in alphabetical order .

1. Animal Jokers 



Animals: Flyers - Bee Boy

1. Cats  or  Dogs 
2. Flyers: Bees, Birds, Owls, Dragons etc 
3. Horses , zebras, donkeys ...
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 including angels and cherubs
4. Entertainment Jokers: Animated
1. Cartoons: Peanuts, Betty Boop,  Alice In Wonderland  
2. SuperHeros  
3. Harry Potter Entertainment: 
   
4. Anime
5. Real People
1. Politicians: 
2. Star Wars
3. Movie Stars
4. Musicians. There's an Elvis section.
5. Comedians
6. Historical and contemporary American. Plus an Americana section.
7. Historical European
8. Plain people jokers (not celebrities)
9. Pin Up Girlie Glamour Jokers (ie erotica and porn). Now split into bikini girls (the essentials covered), illustrations, old fashioned, Asian, and harder core.
10. Sports Jokers: Golf, Baseball, Football (American), 
6. Jesters (people but not celebrities)
1. Dancing with or without jesters wands 
2. Performing with cards or without cards 
3. Juggling things 

   

   Juggling Jesters

4. Juggling cards  
1. Scatterman variations
5. Sitting - Forward vs Sideways
6. Standing Jesters 
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 
7. Musical Jokers - Note this excludes real musicians which are in the real people section.
1. Stringed Instruments 
2. Wind Instruments
3. Percussion and 
4. Ensemble Trios
8. Travel Jokers (outdated post from 2017)
1. Vehicles
1. Bicycle Jokers (Unicycles too)
2. American places and Americana (different than American people). Congress Jokers 
1. American Scenery Jokers
3. Non US Places
4. Maps
5. International people types
6. Chinese
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
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 - 9
5. jester 65
6. people -61
7. things - 32

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).