Just learned that “Monkey in the Middle” as sold today is a bit different than it was a few years (decades?) ago, when I originally bought it.

In the current version, ALL of the cards involved are of the SAME back color. The Jokers forming the top & bottom of the “sandwich” come from the SAME single deck in use.

In my old version, the top & bottom “sandwich” cards are produced from a pocket (and so are also presumably from a wholly different deck), and are of a CONTRASTING back color (i.e., red-backed cards, for a blue-backed deck).

I can’t recall, but did this affect the handling? Were the sandwich-forming top & bottom cards originally added to the deck face DOWN, to show DIFFERENTLY colored backs?

Or not — adding them face UP — as in the contemporary version?

Any preferences for doing it one way vs. the other? Is the new way generally considered an improvement, or not?

(In the new version, the sandwich cards are Jokers. In my old version, they are black Queens. Is this another difference? Were Jokers a universal standard, but deviated from from time to time? Or were the sandwich-making pairs random, in some early original run of the product? Again, any advantages here, one way or another?)

I think my original version came with Jerry's Nuggets.