scribe
Explanation
The Joke
The comic is set in 4028 BC. A medieval-looking king or lord is furious because his scribes "attempted to enter the scriptorium at the same time and are trapped." A wizard or advisor delivers the bad news. The king curses, saying he "just bought those scribes."
The caption reads: "4028 BC: History's first printer jam."
The Humor
The comic is a historical anachronism joke that maps a modern technological frustration — a printer jam — back onto its ancient equivalent. In the ancient world, scribes were the "printers" — they hand-copied documents in a scriptorium (a dedicated writing room). The joke imagines that the very first "printer jam" wasn't paper getting stuck in a machine, but actual human scribes getting physically jammed in a doorway trying to enter the room at the same time.
The humor works on the wordplay between "jam" as in a paper jam (a printer malfunction) and "jam" as in a physical traffic jam of people stuck in a space. The king's reaction — irritated at the inconvenience and treating the scribes as replaceable purchases — mirrors the modern experience of being frustrated with a jammed printer, further reinforcing the parallel between ancient and modern "printing" problems.