Balatro's new merch is just as unhinged as we've come to expect

(Image credit: Playstack / Fangamer)

Against all odds it's nearly 2026, so it's time to start planning for another year of our grim future, and I think we can all agree that there's no better place to capture all your important events, holidays, new year's resolutions, and eviction dates than on a wall calendar decorated with pictures of a deranged business clown hugging a Christmas tree covered in bananas.

Start January off the right way, or at least the weird way, with the latest in Balatro merchandise, like the new 2026 wall calendar that's just as unhinged as we've come to expect. Once again it appears that Ben Starr, actor of Final Fantasy 16 and Clair Obscure: Expedition 33, has donned the disquieting face-paint and belled collar of Jimbo, Balatro's Joker, for a festive photoshoot.

Balatro Wall calendar showing Jimbo biting a banana and dressed as santa hugging a tree — (Image credit: Playstack / Fangamer)

We can't see all of the images from the calendar on Fangamer's site, but the ones shown look great: Jimbo in robes and a crown on the throne to replicate the Baron, Jimbo performing stand-up in front of a red curtain as the Hack, and the Vampire hungrily biting into a banana (a Cavendish, naturally). There's even Jimbo dressed as Santa Claus for the month of December.

There's also the cover of the calendar, both tasteful and sexy, of Jimbo lying invitingly in a field of yellow bananas. Delicious.

The calendar is decently cheap, too, only $19 in the US and €20 in the EU, and just to up the ante a bit, a lot of that money goes to a good cause. Developer LocalThunk and publisher Playstack will be donating 100% of the profits to children's fundraiser Extra Life and the charity for gamers with physical disabilities, SpecialEffect. Fangamer is also kicking in five bucks for every calendar sold. Nice!

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.

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