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The Joker is a recent development in the history of playing cards. Most packs in the last half of the 19th century contained a blank card, or special card, which was often used in various card games. The Germans called this card the Jucker. The image of a fool or jester on the card, undoubtedly inspired by the German name, only started to be seen in card packs as late as 1880, when the card took on its Anglicized name. (link)

The suggestion that the Joker in the standard deck of playing cards evolved from the tarot Fool is appealing and often repeated. Present scholarly opinion, though, weighs in against it. The Joker first appeared in the US around 1850, probably for playing either Poker or Euchre. Although it is possible that whoever invented the Joker had seen a tarot deck and liked the Fool card, it would have been a deliberate "borrowing" at a very late date, not any kind of retention from early times. (link)

By the 1880s, certainly, the card had come to depict a jocular imp, jester or clown. Many other images were also used, especially as Jokers became vehicles for social satire and commercial advertising. {link)

kaneko draws tentacle monsters with wang. that's so funny. this is JOKER-NYARLATHOTEP.

When Kurosu Jun is taken over by Nyarlathotep's power, he becomes known as Joker-sama (the "White Joker," as opposed to the "Black Joker" of Batsu). The Joker, as in Batsu, is a kind of persona that Jun can summon. The Joker costume is a black-and-white uniform, very similar to a school uniform, and Jun wears an odd, stylized mask on his face. Part of it obviously hearkens back to the Joker in Batman - the insane smile, for sure. The black shadow over half of its face matches the hair that falls over Jun's eyes, and the weird jester's cap matches the Joker on playing cards. The weird Pharaonic beard on the mask - I'm tempted to guess that it comes from H.P. Lovecraft's story "Nyarlathotep," where Nyarly appeared in Egypt, looking like a pitch-blach Pharaoh. (He had no hair or beard, but the idea is there...and Pharaonic beards were fake anyways.) Of course, I could be wrong about this, and the beard is just stylistic. :D

The Joker's persona is JOKER-NYARLATHOTEP, seen above. The design is...interesting, isn't it? Poor Jun.

Anyways, the Joker was the head of the Masquerade, an organization devoted to bringing humanity to the utopia called Idealian. To do this, the Joker spread a rumor that if you called your own cellphone number, the Joker would appear and make your dreams come true. In reality, the Joker would appear with a crystal skull and absorb the caller's "Ideal Energy" - the energy that they devoted to their dreams for the future - and stored the energy to raise Sumaru City towards Idealian. Nyarlathotep also warps the Joker's memories of his childhood to give him incentive to keep going. So, good intentions, warped by Nyarlathotep's power...

It's important to make the distinction between the White Joker (Jun), and the Curse-Joker (Sudou Tatsuya) and the Jokers of Batsu.

The White Joker was Jun, who deep in his heart was a kind person who wanted people's dreams to come true. So to summon him, you performed the "Joker CHARM" to make your dreams come true. The word "Joker" was also written in katakana as "Jyo-ka-sama". (ジョーカー様)

The Joker you meet at the beginning of Eternal Punishment clearly could not be Jun - at least to anybody who's played Innocent Sin. Jun would never spread a rumor that if you summoned him, he'd kill the person you hated the most. That's obviously more along the lines of Sudou Tatsuya, King Leo. If you'll notice, the paper bag that Leo wears over his head is a crude replica of Jun's Joker mask; the insane smile and a single visible eye! You perform the "Joker CURSE" to get this murdering Joker, and his name is written in Roman letters, all-caps: JOKER.

People turn into Jokers in Eternal Punishment. Again, their faces closely resemble Jun's mask - pale, with a wide smile and only one eye visible. This is called the "JOKER-form" or "JOKER-transformation." (JOKER-化)

There's also the "Joka" mentioned by Wang Long Chizuru, who calls it a dragon of misfortune. This is written in kanji because it's actually the name of the Chinese mother-goddess Nuwa, who created humanity out of mud. Many other stories mention this Joka - Houshin Engi, for example - and you can see the statue of Joka at the gates of Utena in Sumaru Castle. She was half-human, half-dragon/snake.

The Black Jokers that are the personae of people who have become JOKERS are forms of Nyarlathotep, manifestations of their "sin." As Nyarlathotep's power increases, the bigger and bigger the Black Jokers get.

Other fun notes about this stuff: the "Kotodama" (言霊) mentioned repeatedly in Eternal Punishment literally means "The Power of Words." It's basically the same as "Rumors." So when Tatsuzou performs the "Ritual of Kotodama," he's more or less bringing Gozen back to life with the power of rumors. "Kegare" (穢れ) is essentally "original sin" = "Tsumi."


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