The ride was originally planned to open with the park in 1992. The ride was then canceled until 1993 when the ride was announced to open in 1996 to be called "The Wacky Twister". When Fiesta Texas in San Antonio, Texas was bought out from Time Warner in 1996, they helped rebrand the park into Six Flags Fiesta Texas. Time Warner saw the opportunity to advertise and promote their latest movies through their Six Flags parks, so they added The Joker's Revengethe first VekomaHurricane roller coaster in the United States and the first Vekoma roller coaster to run backwards a full circuitin the Fiesta Bay Boardwalk section next to and along the park's quarry wall. Construction of Joker's Revenge began in 1995. The ride officially opened on May 10, 1996. It was the park's first roller coaster to be themed to a DC Comics character. During the opening week, park employees were dressed in yellow jackets and green hair. One defining feature of the ride was its funhouse queue line, which featured flashing lights and upside down furniture. It had magenta track, magenta supports and light yellow trains manufactured by Arrow Dynamics. Joker's Revenge gained a reputation for roughness while located in San Antonio, and it suffered from numerous mechanical problems. Six Flags Fiesta Texas closed down the coaster after the 2001 season, and in late 2002 it was dismantled and moved to Six Flags New Orleans.
Six Flags New Orleans (2003–2005)
took over the lease of Jazzland in 2002, operating it as "Jazzland" for the 2002 season, changing the park's name in 2003 to Six Flags New Orleans for the 2003 season. Before the 2003 season, the park opened a whole new selection of rides including moving The Joker's Revenge roller coaster from Fiesta Texas in San Antonio to the park in New Orleans and renamed it The Jester in the Mardi Gras section of the park. The coaster, which still ran backwards, was given a new color scheme of Green and Blue. When Hurricane Katrina hit the park on August 29, 2005, the park was severely flooded, causing Six Flags New Orleans to permanently shut down. It is now owned by the city of New Orleans. In 2007 Six Flags began the process of moving rides from the park to their other properties. While , Bayou Blaster, Sonic Slam and Road Runner Express had all been moved by 2009, The Jester still stands abandoned at the New Orleans park, along with Mega Zeph and other coasters and attractions. Some of the Jester's green and blue paint is peeling away, revealing the old Joker's purple paint scheme.
Ride
Once riders would board one of the Jester's two trains, a train would then take riders up a tall lift hill. After the train went up the lift hill, it would then loop around and drop at speeds up to through a vertical loop and then the train would loop around over the station to the ride's double corkscrew. Once the train passed the double corkscrews it would then take riders through a double helix's before entering the brake run that took rides back to the station. There are two Vekoma Hurricane's in the world and The Jester was the only one to take riders backwards throughout the whole course of the coaster. The other Vekoma Hurricane is located at Walygator Parc as The Comet that only travel riders forwards and not backwards.
