I remember reading an article with Mike about MST3K. He was the head writer for years before he became the host, and what he had to say was rather interesting. He feels that they didn't start to hit their stride until about halfway through the series run. At first they really wanted to be more focused on making pop-culture references and obscure jokes, but then later on they changed the jokes to just making fun of how crappy the movies were. I have to agree, because you do see a change (for the better) in the style of jokes near the end of Joel's tenure as host, and continuing on throughout Mike's time.