Chances are that if someone asks you to remember the worst thing you’ve ever smelled, two things will happen. First, you absolutely will have an answer, because you’ll never forget that day.
Second, it will be re-created by your brain and you will hate the person who asked.
So, sorry about that.
These 15 people are sharing their own worst scent experiences, so take a look and see how yours compares!
15. The smell never left.
During my junior year of high school, one of the big senior class clowns decided what his prank was gonna be from day one. He would take a whole gallon of milk, empty it out about half way, fill it back up with a turd, piss, and a dead rodent.
He took this concoction and set it in his locker during the first week of school, wrapped up in multiple trash bags and other such items. Letting it marinate everyday until the final day of school for the seniors, which ended about a week before everyone else’s final day.
He brought in a gas mask and took out his bottle of “milk” and then began to pour little bits of it down every hall in school. The smell was so foul, so vile, it entered into every class room, every crack and crevice. It Stunk so bad you could smell it outside the school.
The moment he began pouring, every single person in the building was gagging or throwing up, sticking their heads out the window or spraying whatever perfume or cologne they had to cover it. They had to shut the school down for multiple days to even make it remotely bearable, even then, you had to walk around with something over your nose or risk vomiting.
I’ve never seen so many people vomit, let alone a staff member in one place. He ended up being expelled and didn’t get his diploma despite graduation being a couple days away. They pressed criminals charges against him banned him from ever stepping foot on school property ever again. Every future class was informed that if they did a senior prank, no matter how small or harmless, they would expel you on the final day and press charges.
The smell never left the school. That next year, you could smell it on the first day. It was always there. It’s gotten better over time, but if the school is empty, and they haven’t mopped the floors yet that day. You can still smell it, lingering on the air. That happened over 5 years ago.
14. She will never forget.
I used to be a CNA had a guy with Cdiff and will never forget that putrid, sickly sweet smell. Fast forward to ten years later, I had cancer and a year and a half of chemo with one of two cycles being 5-day inpatient stays.
I not only caught Cdiff once, but 5 additional times after that. Knew it instantly by the smell. Was shitting at least 15 times an hour (not an exaggeration, as I kept tracking to tell nurses I needed a sample taken).
Every time I had chemo and walked the halls, I would contract it a day or two later. I finally had enough and refused to leave my room until I was discharged. I’d pace in my room if need be. They grabbed a tube of desitin from Labor and delivery because the cream they had in oncology wasn’t working on my extremely raw and destroyed rectum causing immense pain. My gut was cramping, I had pus in my diarrhea, it was horrible. I was already weak from chemo, had mesna for bladder protection from chemo drugs which smelled pretty close to cat piss.
So basically I reeked of cat piss/road kill, had to constantly be monitored as I had no immune system and got dehydrated from the constant diarrhea. My hospital was an hour and a half away, I had to wear adult diapers home because of the frequency of diarrhea.
If I’m having a bad day, I always tell myself “you could have C Diff on top of this” and it generally makes me a little more positive over my issues.
13. What is wrong with people?
In my dorm on the floor below mine a couple geniuses decided they were going wipe their butts every day and toss it into a pile by last stall in bathroom. Janitors refused to clean it up and it apparently grew to a pile of butt papers about 3 feet high.
Eventually the RA found out and got school authorities involved. Janitors almost got fired and they searched the room of the poopers. They had a large trash can half filled with tobacco spit.
They had planned on spitting in it all year then leaning it against someone else’s door and knocking then running away.
They got expelled from college. Can you imagine having to tell your family why you were thrown out of college?
12. Sounds like a nightmare.
Used to work at a doggy day care, one day one of the dogs had diarrhea, like really unhealthy smelly diarrhea. Another dog licked it up before we could clear the area to clean it, this resulted in that dog vomiting an hour later, but not just vomit – a putrid vomit/diarrhea mix that is making me sick just typing this remembering the smell.
One of the woman was pregnant at the time and it triggered her vomit reflex too, the whole center was the most disgusting mix of smells I have ever experienced. We needed to stay late to deep clean the WHOLE thing
11. Worse than a porta-potty.
The “toilet” in an Aeroflot airplane bathroom back in 1989.
In 1989, I took a trip with my father behind the “Iron Curtain”. Part of the trip took us to Tashkent. While there I was warned not to drink any municipal water. My father though said I could eat the fruit and vegetables. So during our few days in the city, I met some guys and gals my age, who took me around to see the sights. One of the sights was the local farmers’ market, where we bought all kind of fruits and munched happily on them for the rest of the day. All told I likely ate about two pounds of fruit.
Well, I got sick. Like really sick. The next day on the plane I knew I was going to hurl, and early in the flight made my way to the bathroom. And I knew I needed to hurl. I had to get the stuff out of my system. Problem is, I’ve got a huge mental block to barfing. I just have a very hard time with it. And don’t even ask me to do the finger thing. I just doesn’t work on me. I’ll gag for sure, but I won’t barf.
Anyway, I walk in to the bathroom, turn and lock the door, and then turn to face the “toilet”. It was at that point the smell hit me. It wasn’t much more than a porta-potty, with exposed waste in the bottom. (1989 Russia wasn’t exactly ‘modern’ in all respects.)
Now, I’ve smelled some nasty porta-potties. But porta-potties all have vapor vents specifically designed to keep things from smelling too horrible. This Aeroflot toilet had no such vent, and all the smell was trapped in the bathroom. I won’t go in to huge detail here, because we’ve all smelled stinky porta potties. But this was like 10,000x more concentrated. And I knew that it would do the trick.
So… I got down on my knees, put my face close to the open “toilet”, and forced myself to inhale deeply. Yep, that did it. Just the smell of that toilet made me almost immediately disgorge the entire contents of my stomach. It went on for a while, and I almost passed out. But if not for the smell of that “toilet” I likely would not have barfed.
I have smelled all kinds of nasty things in my years. But never in my life have I ever smelled something which could so quickly make me vomit as that Aeroflot “toilet”.
10. That’s some fart.
Dog farted in the car.
Dad pulled off the freeway, and we all bailed out, gagging and coughing.
The dog was sitting in the back seat, looking damn proud of himself.
9. Distinct and putrid.
Anal gland fluid/secretions from dogs.
8. It still comes up.
After a weekend of cooked breakfasts and other rich food I did a fart in a hotel in Cornwall that my wife and I still talk about 7 years later.
On a similar note, my cousin took a s*%t in my apartment that was so bad everyone stood out on the balcony in -10F for 15 minutes because the entire apartment (900 sq ft) was unbearable.
7. Especially if they serve Mexican food.
A restaurant grease trap. Nothing I’ve ever smelled compared to it.
So I grew up on a farm and have certainly smelled some horrific things, but the grease trap at the Italian restaurant I worked at in high school is by far the worst. It is the only smell I’ve encountered in my life that almost immediately caused me to almost throw up.
6. A red letter day if you’re 11.
My dog was licking his nuts once and farted so bad he threw up on the floor. I was 11 and I nearly passed out from laughing.
5. Right in the puke button.
Partially decayed sea anemone. It’s weirdly awful, like… yes, it smells bad but it also hits you right in the puke button. Not just “this smells so bad I feel like throwing up,” but straight up, “This smells like I should throw up.”
Trying to remove them with a net is a bad idea. They turn to mush and go everywhere in the aquarium and smell awful.
Better way is to siphon them out. But also, the easiest way to start a siphon is with your mouth. Wanna know what partially decayed sea anemone tastes like?
4. Staying power.
My wife’s farts blow mine out of the water. My worst fart can’t compete with one of her regular farts.
Get to period week where they ramp up to sulphur/sewage treatment plant levels and it’s unbearable. They have staying power and can envelop our house like a fog.
She can fart upstairs and the creeping death will find me in the basement. The other night one of her terrible farts woke me up from the smell.
Our kids will back up everything I just said too.
3. That poor patient.
I worked with a patient dying of bowel cancer who was unable to control their movements and expelled a smell that made my eyes water and triggered unending gag reflex but the horror was the shame they felt, which I knew they were unable to control and didn’t hold it against them even in the moment.
I just couldn’t hide my visceral reaction to it while I helped them clean up.
2. In the car!
Rotten milk – but why it’s the worst because it was almost every day for a few years. As a child I left a whole gallon of milk in the trunk of the family car. We lived in New Mexico.
It exploded in the trunk. The car never smelled the same.
1. Chemicals for everyone.
Chemical plant that you can smell on I-95 between Savannah and Brunswick, Ga.
It is the DS Smith paper mill.
I don’t think I’ve ever smelled anything that awful anymore. I’m just saying.
Does your worst smell hold up? If so, tell us about it in the comments!
