1 {scene: Lobby of the Palast-Hotel, Kiev}
1 Monty: {walking out from the lifts} Well now. Let's try to work out what Dr Smith has done with the orichalcum.
2 Prof. Jones: She must have it with her. We just need to find her.
3 Prof. Jones: We'll have to figure out where she went. Let's see. She's a woman, a Russian...
4 Minnesota Jones: Shopping!

Well, I thought it was amusing. The stereotypes at work here:

1. Russians have to wait in long queues to buy so much as a loaf of bread. Hence they are often "shopping".
2. Women love shopping.

I'm aware these are stereotypes, and in many times and places untrue.

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A lot of people have written to me asking what the guy on the floor and the doctor are doing there in panel 3. All I want to say about that is check strips 973 and 985, and remember Kiev is snowed in. It actually has nothing to do with the story; I just thought it would be a neat background thing.

Sometimes I like to put little things like this into the backgrounds without drawing attention to them or having to explain them in detail. Unfortunately if I don't explain them, I get dozens of e-mails asking for an explanation! Ah well... such is the price of fame.

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2015-01-22 Rerun commentary: I wonder if it would have been better not to explain what the guy was doing lying on the floor, and just ignore anyone who ever asked me the question.

Is a Shrug of God better or worse than Explaining the Joke? It's a question I've dealt with a lot over the years...

(Yes, there are some jokes in Irregular Webcomic! which I've never explained.)