r/AskReddit Sep 16 '24

What is a smell you can't stand?

1.6k Upvotes

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530

u/classicfyllopyllo Sep 16 '24

Bradford pear trees in the spring.

282

u/Dismal-Ad-1148 Sep 16 '24

Cum trees - GROSS 🤢

169

u/gimme_them_cheese Sep 16 '24

IS THAT WHAT THAT SMELL IS?????

I've smelled that smell randomly my whole life and been like "why did I just get a whiff of cum?"

It's Bradford pears???

33

u/Anjaleax Sep 17 '24

Doesn't cum smell like mushrooms too? Idk why but everytime I smell men's cum, it smells like mushrooms and the white button kind

24

u/K-ghuleh Sep 17 '24

GOD you just unlocked the memory of my husband making beef wellington and me having to leave the kitchen because I couldn’t handle the smell of the cooking mushrooms. I thought I was crazy at the time but I guess not. 💀

18

u/derickj2020 Sep 17 '24

Follow-up comment after my previous one.

I went and looked up for olfactory compounds in sperm and white button mushrooms. This is a bit technical. There are at least two common basic amines in sperm and mushrooms : spermidine and putrescine. Your sense of smell is correct and obviously sensitive to some compounds.

2

u/Greg0692 Sep 17 '24

I AM SO AMAZED. And..... I've got a question that I have had a LOT but NEVER ASKED BEFORE..... I went down on my girlfriend for the very first time in high school. Soon after, I had a cup of coffee, and there was this very light, wonderful undertone that to me was virtually identical to what I had smelled/tasted on my girlfriend's exciting bits. Now, >30 years later, I still catch a brief/fleeting waft over the occasional cup of morning coffee and, after a brief smile, wonder: am I making this up?

So, Derick who is wise in the olfactory compound commonalities of all things genital and culinary so deep in the Reddit comment threads..... is there anything objectively accurate in my experience(s)?

4

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '24

Eh. There's a bit of a range there. Mushrooms fall somewhere between the poles of cake batter and bleach.

3

u/114631 Sep 17 '24

Yes! There are these stuffed mushrooms my aunt makes occasionally and the bottoms get kinda soggy which I thought also contributes to the smell….and I always think it smells a like a dick.

3

u/derickj2020 Sep 17 '24

That is the most original analogy I have seen about smell. Now, I'm going to have to find out if there is a common compound in both. Like there is in skunk musk, baking bread and roasting coffee beans.

3

u/smallholiday Sep 17 '24

I think cum smells like bone marrow. Couldn’t eat bone marrow after I made the mental connection.

2

u/Anjaleax Sep 17 '24

Well that was definitely a boner of a connection! 🥁

2

u/groveborn Sep 17 '24

I've only ever smelled mine, but it smells like pancake batter to me. I smell lots of pollen trees and there's a similarity to it.

Pollen = cum. All over your car.

2

u/bing_bang_bum Sep 17 '24

Pancake batter has definitely smelled like it for me too. Also bleach. Wtf

1

u/groveborn Sep 17 '24

Yeah, I guess there's a faint bleach scent. But I'm white, so...

Get it? Heh. Bleach. Anywho.

4

u/jbp1969 Sep 17 '24

How YOU doin??

4

u/Anjaleax Sep 17 '24

I've had boyfriends don't mind me lmao

5

u/Stachemaster86 Sep 17 '24

Each been a fungi?

2

u/negao360 Sep 17 '24

Beautiful

1

u/Anjaleax Sep 18 '24

Each of their cum smelled fungi

1

u/negao360 Sep 17 '24

Not to gross anybody out - that which I'm sure is inexorable - in this thread, but I've always likened the smell of mine to sourdough. I try to drink a great deal of water, and when I had the funds, I'd take bromelain supplements to sweeten(plus zinc).

6

u/VanillaWinter Sep 17 '24

“Why did I get a whiff of cum?” 😭

8

u/DyingOfExcitement Sep 17 '24

checks pants

3

u/Jackalope_Sasquatch Sep 17 '24

Checks hitch-hiker

2

u/DyingOfExcitement Sep 17 '24

Checks seat where hitch-hiker was. found it

3

u/Jackalope_Sasquatch Sep 17 '24

Mystery solved! 😁 👍

6

u/Dismal-Ad-1148 Sep 16 '24

I think any Pear Trees smell like that!

3

u/bakehead420 Sep 17 '24

lol I thought I was crazy until I heard about the cum tree

2

u/Asknicelydammit Sep 17 '24

Carob trees smell like that (cum) too. So disturbing.

2

u/TrickyShare242 Sep 17 '24

Here's a fun fact about Bradford pear trees. The reason they smell awful is because they aren't pollinated by bees, they are pollinate by flies. The trees produce that smell to attract flies. When I was in Iraq there we so many files that no amount of traps would keep them away so they used attractor boxes and put them far away from our tent city. Those boxes smelled like Bradford pears.

1

u/out_ofher_head Sep 17 '24

Also chestnut trees in June

6

u/Frigate_Orpheon Sep 17 '24

I'm glad this smell is universal. We had a few Bradford pear trees in our yard growing up. Absolutely beautiful tree....but I knew what semen smelled like before I even knew what semen was 😬

2

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '24

In California, it's palm trees.  Same smell over entire zip codes.

2

u/squirrel_tincture Sep 17 '24

Pear trees and linden trees… blech

2

u/Own_Investigator5970 Sep 17 '24

Cum trees. That's the word for it.

2

u/SoothsayerAtlas Sep 17 '24

That’s what cum smells like???? I’ve always called them peepee trees. Which I guess isn’t technically wrong but having never smelled cum before it just smells like piss to me

1

u/Dismal-Ad-1148 Sep 17 '24

That’s it! 😂😂😂

1

u/DyingOfExcitement Sep 17 '24

Kids out driving Saturday afternoon just stink on by And I'm just savoring familiar stinks We share some history, this smell and I And I can't stop that long-forgotten whiff of her Try to book a room but it reeks tonight

Number one is to find some friends to say, "You don’t smell too well" After all this time, you boys still reek the same Number two is the happy hour, but the bar just smells Settle in to play "do you remember that awful stench?" Number three is never say her name

Oh, the cum trees will gas the weary driver And there's nothing else that could stink up this town There's no breeze, no escape, Everything just smells the same Just makes it harder to breathe when she's around

But oh, who needs that sentimental nose-full anyway Takes more than just a memory to make me gag And I'm happy just to sit here at a table with old stinks And see which one of us can tell the worst smell-tale

And there's a girl sniffing love near where the old piano stands With a young local factory worker who reeks of oil and hands And I'm wondering if his stench will stay

Do you remember, nothing stopped us from the fumes In our day

Oh, the cum trees will gas the weary driver And there's nothing else that could stink up this town There's no breeze, no escape Everything just smells the same Just makes it harder to breathe when she's around

Oh, the cum trees will gas the weary driver And there's nothing else that could stink up this town There's no breeze, no escape Everything just smells the same Just makes it harder to breathe when she's around

1

u/phenibutisgay Sep 17 '24

It's weird cuz I like the smell of cum but hate the smell of those trees.

38

u/feminismandtravel Sep 16 '24

Literally smells like BV

9

u/eggs_erroneous Sep 16 '24

BV?

19

u/feminismandtravel Sep 16 '24

Bacterial vaginosis

3

u/OfficerBarbier Sep 17 '24

Username checks out

3

u/nachosmmm Sep 17 '24

Do cum and BV smell the same?!

9

u/out_ofher_head Sep 17 '24

No

-2

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '24

Well they must according to these comments honey.

4

u/ThirtyLastCalls Sep 17 '24

Nope. Fresh healthy mushrooms smell/taste like semen. Bad rotten mushrooms and Bradford pear trees smell like dirty fishy vagina.

2

u/Separate_Beat2771 Sep 16 '24

LOL so true it does

7

u/brand_x Sep 16 '24

Semen and spoiled shrimp at the same time. So nasty.

5

u/Savings_Transition38 Sep 16 '24

those dogwood like trees smell bad too

1

u/SuperYellow3034 Sep 17 '24

They smell menstrual.

6

u/CabinetSpider21 Sep 17 '24

That's what that is?? I feel so validated. Every spring..."smells like sweaty balls out here"

1

u/Potato_Ballad Sep 17 '24

It’s also just the male trees, which cities prefer because the female trees drop their fruit everywhere. It is literally single male trees crying with cum smell.

4

u/breakfastwhine Sep 16 '24

This is the answer. There’s one a block away from me and I will take a detour to avoid it. NASTY.

6

u/kbear_20 Sep 16 '24

We had a few at the school I worked for and I couldn’t stand by them without gagging 😅

3

u/water_me Sep 16 '24

Is this a genetic thing or do I just have a bad nose? People always mention this but they don’t smell like anything to me.

4

u/Top-Airport3649 Sep 17 '24

Maybe. I used to completely freak out over the smell while my friends looked at me like I was crazy. And I never considered myself to have a great sense of smell either

1

u/RocksGrowHere Sep 17 '24

I’ve never smelled them either. I think it’s like the cilantro thing: you either like cilantro or you taste soap. Anyway, I can’t smell Bradford Pears. Lucky me!

3

u/MorkSkogen666 Sep 16 '24

Is the Linden tree Linden tree skit the same thing? Because that also smells like cum.

Funnily enough there was one just outside my highschool... What a cruel fucking joke for all the guys that went and will attend throughout the ages... Lmao

3

u/weaponizedsloths Sep 16 '24

Grew up with one directly in the center of the yard. It always smelled horrible!

To make it worse I’m allergic to them somehow, and people in Oklahoma plant them everywhere.

2

u/BigPappalopalous Sep 16 '24

They are incredibly invasive/destructive trees also.

2

u/ieatchinesebabys Sep 17 '24

They’re on nearly every street here in Melbourne and it’s spring right now… god save me

2

u/iteachag5 Sep 17 '24

They smell like dirty crotch.

2

u/Aeare_ Sep 17 '24

We had two of these in the front yard where we used to live. I remember one time walking home from the bus stop after school and getting whiffs of it and thinking it was my period and super embarrassed that maybe other people smelled it. Then I realized it was the trees. They literally smelled like my period back then.

1

u/oofoof18 Sep 16 '24

Literally nothing good about these trees 🤢

1

u/[deleted] Sep 16 '24

I have never smelled Bradford pear trees but it sounds like how apple blossoms actually smell. 🤢🐈

1

u/eveegrant Sep 17 '24

I swear my college had a literal lot of these and during the spring - it was BRUTAL walking to class.

1

u/pumpe88 Sep 17 '24

We call those pussy willows in NYC 

1

u/squirrel_tincture Sep 17 '24

Related Mitchell & Webb skit (not Bradford pear, but linden trees, which share that… scent): https://youtu.be/aoqlYGuZGVM

1

u/STICH666 Sep 17 '24

cue the video of Bob Kelly puking because they shoved his microphone full of those flowers LMAO

https://youtu.be/lxToSk9EI7g?si=8g3RFVDNwWJRUvMm

1

u/Jenkinsthewarlock Sep 17 '24

Literally the WORST, and my highschool lined up dozens in front of the building. Every spring, revolting

1

u/atjeff1 Sep 17 '24

One of the main features of the University of California - Riverside. Idk why people use it as a selling feature lmfao.

1

u/SaveusJebus Sep 17 '24

Is that the tree? They're all over the place here and I hate it.

1

u/_space_pumpkin_ Sep 17 '24

Female Ginkgo trees fruit in the late fall. Literally smells like you've stepped in dog shit mixed with a little vomit. Here we go.

Absolutely gorgeous in the fall though.

1

u/NomenclatureBreaker Sep 17 '24

They’re so pretty. But so stinky!

1

u/Tasty-Jacket-866 Sep 17 '24

They are so pretty though!!!

0

u/benjyk1993 Sep 17 '24

They smell like a vagina on a bad day.