2020s smell like nothing because COVID
Before the 1990s, it was cigarettes all the way down.
1980s - cigarettes and hair spray.
70s - cigarettes and alternating body odor and heavy cologne/perfume.
60s - cigarettes and canned food.
50s - cigarettes and gasoline.
40s - cigarettes and either gunpowder or a machine shop.
30s - cigarettes and dust.
20s - cigarettes and bootleg whiskey
10s - cigarettes and bloody mud
1900-1909 - cigarettes and horse shit in the street.
The banning of cigarettes in bars and restaurants made a huge difference. It used to be when you’d get into the shower the morning after going out, you’d reek of cigarettes. It was mind-blowing when that went away.
For real, the first time I went to a bar in a county that had banned smoking indoors was amazing. My clothes (and by extension, my dorm room) no longer reeked when I got home. Going out to dinner at any restaurant prior to that point just meant that all my food smelled like cigarettes, regardless of sitting in the non smoking area. I can’t believe it took so goddamn long to ban it indoors.
Don’t forget lead
Can’t smell something that was so pervasive in the environment that an estimated 660 metric tons are frozen into Antarctic ice. Humans only smell changes in things, our brains are wired to grow to ignore a pervasive smell.
You don’t think the fact that lead just doesn’t smell all that much might be the better explanation?
The 2000s smelled like axe body spray and watermelon bubblegum
2010s: Axe body spray
That was more 2000s than 2010s.
LOL 2000s was what I typed first, then I remembered Leslie Knope remarking about Tommy Haverford being surrounded by “a dense cloud of Axe body spray” which was like in 2011 or 12. I figured he would be using whatever was trending.
It was just as pungent around 2006 and probably earlier.
I remember it being a thing when I was in highschool, but that was late 90s.
Late 90s, early 2000s was peak adolescent Axe usage. I entered high school in 2003, right when the fad was peaking. Which is good because it covered up the stench in the PE locker room.
PE locker rooms and axe are a terrible, terrible combo. Some kid inevitably empties a full can, then no one can breath.
The joke with axe was that it stank worse, not that it made things better.
