medieval
Explanation
This comic is titled "Somewhere in a Medieval Medical Text" and describes an elaborate, absurd medieval medical remedy. The text describes a procedure involving cheese buried beneath a full moon, placing it in a vat of goose urine, and various other bizarre steps including striking a wound with a branch while reciting prayers, washing it in rainwater, and letting the bone heal itself.
The second panel then shows a modern-day lecturer presenting to an audience: "Later, in the modern era, we recognize these ancient people... somehow knew calcium and good bones." The audience applauds.
The joke satirizes the popular tendency to retroactively credit ancient or medieval people with modern scientific knowledge based on superficial similarities. The medieval remedy described is clearly superstitious nonsense -- full moon rituals, goose urine, incantations -- but because it happens to involve cheese (which contains calcium) and bone healing, modern commentators twist it into evidence that medieval people understood nutrition science. The comic mocks the "ancient wisdom" narrative that cherry-picks details from historical practices to make them seem prescient while ignoring the overwhelming context of magical thinking and pseudoscience surrounding them.