Hidden Meanings Behind Joker Names In Balatro

Balatro is a game crammed full of pop-culture references and pieces of hidden information that are not only interesting facts but useful in the game itself. There is no doubt about the cultural impact of the title and the games it will influence later down the line, but LocalThunk clearly cares a lot about paying homage to the real world and the individuals in it.

Sometimes a card may be fairly obvious at first, like Misprint, showing a misaligned card in reference to manufacturing errors during real-world card creation. But upon close inspection, players figured out that the Misprint actually has a functional use-case by showing the next card in the deck, and this is just one of the many secrets hidden behind the smiling Jokers, with each one providing a new piece of history, science, and culture.

8

Ceremonial Dagger

A Life After Death

Weapons for rituals come in many shapes and sizes, predominantly used for some form of sacrifice. This Joker follows suit, sacrificing Joker after Joker, all to grow its power as if worshipping some hidden deity. And the assumption is that by destroying each Joker, the gods will reward the player with fortune and success and that is certainly the case here.

Aside from real-world inspirations, this Joker, in particular, holds a similar design and mechanic to an item of the same name in the Risk Of Rain series, whereby killing enemies, the player is rewarded with a burst of homing daggers to inflict further damage. It is obviously a subtle nod to a fellow rogue-like and an admiration of the unique game design and concept.

7

Vagabond

Disheveled And Defeated

Vagabond has a very iconic and well-made design, depicting a clown in worn-out clothes who is presumably poor and homeless, similar to real-life vagabonds who roam the world with no home or occupation or income. This is greatly mirrored by the actual effect, rewarding the player for having a shallow bank account with tarot cards, with associations with poor luck and misfortune.

The actual card is the only art that was not illustrated by LocalThunk and instead made by animator Lumpy Touch. And the image itself is a direct reference to an incredibly famous clown character created by Emmet Leo Kelly aptly named Weary Willie, based on the homeless people in the era of the great depression.

6

Midas Mask

Turn It All To Gold

A money-generating machine, the Midas Mask is an incredibly powerful Joker for building wealth and setting up the player for the late game. The inspiration is pretty clear, being the story of King Midas from Greece, a ruler who was ridden with a curse that forced anything he touched to be turned to gold, whether food, objects, or even his loved ones.

Greed can be deadly and in Balatro that message rings just as true as anywhere. The Joker wears the mask, turning only face cards gold which is a powerful boon to any run. But players have to be careful they don’t spend all their time yearning for more and more wealth, as they might just perish from their zeal.

5

Canio

The Comedy Is Finished

Canio is one of several legendary Jokers in the game, only being accessible from the spectral card, the Soul. Because of this, their effects are among the most powerful, completely changing how a deck functions or how the player chooses to pick up pairings or modifiers.

The story behind Canio comes from an Italian Opera named Pagliacci, in which an actor of the same name as the Joker, is consumed by jealousy and murders his wife and later her lover. The reference here is related to the effect of the destruction, specifically of face cards to represent his murder, growing in power to mirror Canio’s rage and anger.

4

Pareidolia

Perception Versus Reality

A slightly confusing and wacky Joker, Pareidolia is a very simplistic yet highly complex card that can change the outcome of an entire run. By treating all cards as if they were face cards, many synergies can be born related to re-triggers or cards interested in face cards themselves, without the need for having them actually within the deck.

The word comes from a phenomenon where patterns or images are perceived in completely random or accidental arrangements of various lines, shapes, and colors. This is seen often in nature, a tree that looks like a person, a cat in the clouds, and in this case, faces where there never was.

3

Perkeo

Praise The Jester

Going all the way back to the 18th century Germany, Perkeo is based on a real-life individual by the name Clemens Pankert, also known as Perkeo of Heidelberg. His role was that of a jester and guardian of the Great Heidelberg Tun, a gigantic barrel that contained wine, that Perkeo was known to drink excessive quantities of each day.

This heavy consumption is shown in-game with the legendary Joker’s ability to generate copies of consumable cards and add additional slots for even more down the line. He is a celebrated figure and a historic mascot who is celebrated across the region, much in the same way that the player celebrates when they are gifted with his presence from the Soul.

2

Yorick

Goodnight Sweet Prince

Shakespeare has had no shortage of pop-culture presence and influence, even several hundred years since his passing. Yorick is a direct call back to a scene in Hamlet, in which the titular character grasps hold of the skull of Yorick, a figure from his youth who meant a great deal to Hamlet in his role as court jester.

LocalThunk even took things a step further, clearly reading up on his classic literature and including a reference to the cards’ actual ability. After 23 discards, the multiplier increases, which is the same number used in the act, as the skull is described as being buried beneath the earth for 23 years. A nice detail and a clown that won’t be forgotten.

1

Gros Michel/Cavendish

Absolutely Bananas

Gros Michel and Cavendish are an odd pair of Jokers, depicting a banana with no real indication as to why. They boast heavy multipliers with a distinct drawback of the possibility that the card is destroyed. Gros Michel is the more powerful of the two and hence the chance is significantly higher at 1/6, but the question many players were asking is what does it all mean?

The two names exist in real life, relating to two types of bananas that were cultivated in the 1950s. Gros Michel was one of the most widely consumed varieties, grown and eaten for its sweetness, density, and resistance to bruising during transport. But, it became very susceptible to disease and was phased out during a fungus outbreak and replaced by the superior Cavendish, hence the pop-up saying “extinct” in the game.