NCIS - slightly more subtle than usual

Normally I regard NCIS as a JAG-meets-CSI spin-off in which a Navy person meets with a grisly death and our heroes solve it, in between bickering about their love lives, shooting terrorists and sleeping in coffins. It's pretty much an on-the-surface kinda show, what you see is what it is.

So I was taken aback by a rare moment of subtle humour in the episode "Meat Puzzle" (remember what I said about grisly deaths!).

Anyhow, at one point, Ducky (played by David McCallum) says to Kate something about wishing she had known him as a young man. In response, Kate asks what did Ducky look like as a young man, so which Gibbs replies "Illya Kuryakin".

Given that the show here is on Channel Ten which aims at the under-35 demographic, I wonder if most of the audience got the joke. Well, I thought it was funny anyway.