Jimbo

Gary "Jimbo" McCready^[1] is a talking Joker that introduces the game and narrates the tutorial. He appears in the game as the Joker, the simplest of the Jokers.

Jimbo acts as the primary guide during the Tutorial seed. Depending on whether you win or lose a run, he can give you some inspirational or insulting messages. He will disappear when losing a run in Endless mode.

Jimbo also has some lines of dialogue in some of the trailers and teasers he is featured in.

• "Hello there! My name is Jimbo, I'm here to help you learn how to play!"
• "Your goal is to earn Chips to defeat the enemy Blind"
• "This here is a Small Blind, you only need to score 300 Chips to beat it."
• "Select the Small Blind to start the round!"
• "You earn chips by playing Poker hands"
• "Each Poker hand earns a base amount of Chips multiplied by some Mult"
• "See your Poker hands in the Run Info area, along with other info about your current run"
• "Cards also earn you some Chips, hover over to see!"
• "Now select up to 5 cards to play and press 'Play Hand'"
• "You can also 'Discard' up to 5 selected cards to try and make even stronger hands. Try it!"
• "Careful! You only have a limited number of Hands and Discards per round"
• "Earn 300 Chips before you run out of Hands to win this round. Good luck!"
• "Nicely done! Now that you're flush with Cash, you can buy some new cards from the Shop"
• "Try buying this handsome Devil"
• "This is one of the 150 Jokers you can add to your run. Every Joker does something different"
• "This one adds +4 Mult to every hand you play!"
• "Be picky, you can only carry 5 Joker cards at a time"
• "Now buy the other card from the Shop"
• "This Tarot card is a consumable. This one will enhance your playing cards! Hold on to it."
• "You can carry up to 2 consumable cards with you at a time"
• "If you save up enough, you can buy a Voucher. Vouchers passively upgrade your run!"
• "Vouchers are restocked after you defeat the Boss Blind."
• "And check out both of the Booster Packs in every shop. They're full of goodies!"
• "Let's move on to the next round."
• "Selecting the Big Blind will earn some cash"
• "Or choose to skip it to get a Tag! Each Tag has a unique effect"
• "But keep an eye on the Boss Blind. It has an ability you'll need to plan around."
• "if you beat it, then the Ante goes up and all Blinds become harder"
• "Beat Ante 8 to win. Now choose your path!"
• "When you get more cards, remember you can arrange them. Jokers trigger in order from left to right"
• "And make sure that you USE your consumables!"
• "Select up to 2 cards in your hand and press 'USE' on the Tarot card to enhance them!"

• "You Aced it!"
• "You dealt with that pretty well!"
• "Looks like you weren't bluffing!"
• "Too bad these chips are all virtual..."
• "Looks like I've taught you well!"
• "You made some heads up plays!"
• "Good thing I didn't bet against you!"

• "Maybe Go Fish is more our speed..."
• "We folded like a cheap suit!"
• "Time for us to shuffle off and try again!"
• "You know what they say, the house always wins!"
• "Looks like we found out who the real Joker is!"
• "Oh no, were you bluffing too?"
• "Looks like the joke's on us!"
• "If I had hands I would have covered my eyes!"
• "I'm literally a fool, what's your excuse?"
• "What a flop!"

• "Hello!"
• "Takes one to know one!" (Refers to himself when the narrator calls him a "Joker.")

• "Hello there! My name is Jimbo."
• "I'm here to tell you about..."
• "Which is coming to..."
• "That's right! You'll be able to play the critically acclaimed game..."
• "...in the palm of your hands!"
• "Play anytime! Play anywhere!"
• "Doesn't it feel good to win?"
• "Doesn't it feel good to lose?"

• "Hello there! My name is Jimbo."
• "Did you know that Balatro is out on mobile?"
• "In case you missed it, here's our previous trailer!"
• "Wow! What a trailer."
• "If you're new to Balatro, here's a playthrough of the tutorial!"
• "Wasn't that exciting? Now you should be an expert in Balatro."
• "And here are the content patch notes for mobile!"
• "Here are places you can play Balatro mobile!"
• "Here are places you can't play Balatro mobile."
• "Here's a message to the community!"
• "Here's someone who plays Balatro mobile!"
• "Here's someone who doesn't play Balatro mobile."
• "Here's the ending to this trail-"

• "That will do...for now."

• "Now this is a party!"

• "Hello, my name is Jimbo."
• "I'm here to tell you that Balatro is coming to Xb.."
• "Well that was rude."
• "Anyway, today you'll be able to play Balatro on Xbox Ga.."
• "Are they gone?"
• "Finally I can announce that..."

• "This is Rusty."
• "They live at the bottom of your screen."
• "Oh look! They're playing Balatro at the same time."
• "Woah, did we just merge?"
• "Look! That's me! I'm watering cabbages!"
• "Other jokers are here too!"
• "That's a bit...Abstract!"
• "Wait. These aren't poker cards."
• "They look more like...crop cards?"
• "I think my cabbages just hit a straight flush."

• Jimbo is voiced by LocalThunk himself, pitched up by about 200%.^[9]
• If the "Display Stake Stickers during Run" option is selected in settings, Jimbo will appear with whichever sticker the Joker ({{Mult|+4}} Common Additive Mult Independent Joker.png) has in the Collection on the win or game over screen, as well as the intro when opening the game.
• In the tutorial, when he tells the player to buy the Joker ({{Mult|+4}} Common Additive Mult Independent Joker.png), he refers to it as a "handsome Devil."
• LocalThunk once revealed the back of Jimbo.^[10]
• Jimbo's legal name is Gary McCready and he is from Logansport, Indiana.^[1] Jimbo (Gary) is a big fan of the Pacers and is forklift certified.^[11]
• Jimbo is one of the few Jokers to have a pin in a recently released Pin Collection from Makeship. Other pins include a Cavendish ({{xmult|3}} <br> {{hl|green|1 in 1000}} chance this card is destroyed at the end of round Common Multiplicative Mult Independent Cavendish.png) Joker and a The Wheel of Fortune ({{hl|green|1 in 4}} chance to add [[Foil|{{hl|edition|Foil}}]], [[Holographic|{{hl|edition|Holographic}}]], or [[Polychrome|{{hl|edition|Polychrome}}]] edition to a random [[Jokers|{{hl|orange|Joker}}]] Available from start. Tarot The Wheel of Fortune.png)'s "Nope!"^[12]
• Jimbo's live action counterpart is portrayed by Ben Starr.^[13][14]

Jimbo makes an appearance, or is at the very least, referenced in numerous games and other media:

• In Backpack Battles, there is an item called "Jimbo."
• In Black Mirror, there is a scene in the "Hotel Reverie" episode where Jimbo shows up on a character's screen.^[15]
• In CloverPit, there is a lucky charm called "Jimbo."
• In Cyberpunk 2077, Jimbo is also referenced multiple times. An in-game t-shirt featuring a version of Jimbo can be obtained in Cyberpunk, as part of the crossover.
• In Dave the Diver, there is a mini-game called Jimbo's Game, which is essentially a lite version of Balatro.
• In Don't Starve Together, there is a structure called "JIMBO."
• In Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers, there is a card named "Jimbo."
• In Dying Light 2, there is a DLC that includes a selection of Balatro-themed items.
• In Little Kitty, Big City, there is a "Joker Hat."
• In Monster Train 2, there is an event called "Balatro."
• In Rusty's Retirement, Jimbo appears in his own little land alongside a few other cameo Jokers such as Juggler ({{hl|orange|+1}} hand size Common Effect N/A (Passive) Juggler.png), Stuntman ({{Chips|+250}},<br>{{hl|orange|-2}} hand size Earn at least 100 million (100,000,000) Chips in a single hand. Rare Chips Independent Stuntman.png), Abstract Joker ({{Mult|+3}} for each [[Jokers|{{hl|orange|Joker}}]] card<br>{{Currently|{{mult|+0}}}} Common Additive Mult Independent Abstract Joker.png), Misprint ({{Mult|+0-23}} Common Additive Mult Independent Misprint.png), as well as an orange and green Joker ({{Mult|+4}} Common Additive Mult Independent Joker.png) sprite.
• In Vampire Survivors, Jimbo appears as a playable character as part of that game's Ante Chamber DLC. He is seen in a full physical body instead of a joker card.
  • He also has a passive item that references him, which is the Outer Saboteur.
  • There are also multiple enemies that are either based on Jimbo or wear his hat and jester collar. These enemies are the Jimbat, the Playing Mantis, the Moonlover, and the Zombalatro.
• In Wildfrost, there is a charm called "Jimbo Charm."