It Was A Very Local Earthquake (Isn't It Ironic, Don't You Think?)

I offer here an iconic, comedic passage From Lord Dunsany's Chu-bu and Sheemish:

It was a very local earthquake, for there are other gods than Chu-bu or even Sheemish, and it was only a little one as the gods had willed, but it loosened some monoliths in a colonnade that supported one side of the temple and the whole of one wall fell in, and the low huts of the people of that city were shaken a little and some of their doors were jammed so that they would not open; it was enough, and for a moment it seemed that it was all; neither Chu-bu nor Sheemish commanded there should be more, but they had set in motion an old law older than Chu-bu, the law of gravity that that colonnade had held back for a hundred years, and the temple of Chu-bu quivered and then stood still, swayed once and was overthrown, on the heads of Chu-bu and Sheemish. (51-52)

The joke is on the gods, who each wished for a local earthquake to strike fear into, and thus win over, the hearts of the idolatrous locals. While inadvertantly effecting the opposite, vexing their high thrones of worship and reducing themselves to mere pittances for the anonymous narrator.

You can read the complete short story here.