This is by Ken Pearce, was published in _The Pundit_, and was sent to the Groaners listserv.

One day in a town full of devout people, the faith of all was tested by a wall of water that was headed their way. Everyone rushed to their religious leaders who besought their particular deities for help but the wall ofwa.ter kept coming!

The townsfolk turned to the one leader who had done nothing because he was in bed with laryngitis. He agreed to try and help, though’he didn’t think he could be heard. As he whispered his supplications to the heavens, the ground shook, trees and rocks:and earth fell and blocked the water, and the town was saved!

Thus that religious leader became the first to use the technique of …

damming with faint prays!