Gym humor

On Monday I tutored Jeff, a Taiwanese immigrant who attends my church; he needs help in grammar and vocabulary in preparation for college. His residence is only a few blocks from the Norwalk Bally Total Fitness gym (yes, the very same gym against which my parents advised me against using), so I stopped by for a quick workout.

Thanks to my all-gym membership, I have used not a few Bally gyms in southern California, but the layout of this one was very unique, and is best described as cavernous. A full 85% of the gym is below ground: the men’s and women’s showers and locker rooms, the group aerobics class room, the free weights, the machine weights, a large conference center, and a few of the exercycles. This means that air circulation in the free weights room is restricted; consequently it is stuffy and smells…unpleasant.

It was in the confines of this ventilation-challenged room that my joke was born:
“Why couldn’t the aqueous silver nitrate pay his debt?”
Because he was insolvent! (Get it? Insolvent, in solvent.)

While doing seated curls, I was ruminating on the word “insolvency,” which led me to think about “insolvent,” and I noticed the possibility for a pun on “in solvent”. Then I had to think of a context for something that could be both “dissolved in solvent” and “unable to finance its debts”. I’m glad that my high school education furnished me with knowledge about both chemistry and economics.

The stinky dungeon of the Norwalk Bally Total Fitness weight room: what an unlikely place for the genesis of such an erudite joke!