medicine
Explanation
This comic depicts a medieval medical scene. A physician (in period-appropriate robes and hat) is treating a patient and prescribing a treatment that includes a bizarre mix of medieval remedies: "By Saint Erasmus' spleen, 'tis obvious! Bring me half a stone of mandrake root, a poultice of roasted beetle parts, and all the maiden piss you can carry!"
Another character asks, "Will that hold him until we confirm by fire that an orphaned lady over 25 is at fault?" A third replies, "It'll have to. I'll take the rookie."
The caption reads: "Why has nobody made a medieval medical drama?"
The joke highlights the absurdity of pre-modern medicine, where treatments involved superstition, bizarre herbal concoctions, bodily fluids, and the persecution of women as witches (blaming illness on an "orphaned lady" and confirming guilt "by fire"). The comic frames this as a pitch for a TV medical drama -- a genre normally associated with modern hospitals and cutting-edge procedures -- but set in a time when medicine was indistinguishable from quackery and witch-hunting. The humor comes from applying the dramatic conventions of shows like Grey's Anatomy or House to a setting where the "medicine" is horrifying nonsense. The urgent, professional tone of the dialogue contrasts sharply with the barbaric content of what they are actually saying.