diff --git a/doc/changes/devel/13159.bugfix.rst b/doc/changes/devel/13159.bugfix.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..407c065940a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/changes/devel/13159.bugfix.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Changed ``exclude=None`` to ``exclude="bads"`` in :func:`~mne.viz.plot_evoked_joint`, because ``None`` was not a valid argument for this parameter. By `Scott Huberty`_.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/mne/viz/evoked.py b/mne/viz/evoked.py
index 96ee0684e6e..290dce0f815 100644
--- a/mne/viz/evoked.py
+++ b/mne/viz/evoked.py
@@ -1797,7 +1797,7 @@ def plot_evoked_joint(
     times="peaks",
     title="",
     picks=None,
-    exclude=None,
+    exclude="bads",
     show=True,
     ts_args=None,
     topomap_args=None,
@@ -1824,9 +1824,10 @@ def plot_evoked_joint(
         axes are passed make sure to set ``title=None``, otherwise some of your
         axes may be removed during placement of the title axis.
     %(picks_all)s
-    exclude : None | list of str | 'bads'
+    exclude : list of str | 'bads'
         Channels names to exclude from being shown. If ``'bads'``, the
-        bad channels are excluded. Defaults to ``None``.
+        bad channels are excluded. If an empty list, no channels are
+        excluded. Defaults to ``"bads"``.
     show : bool
         Show figure if ``True``. Defaults to ``True``.
     ts_args : None | dict