Dude I stepped on one of these fucks on the playground in like 3rd grade and I still can't get the smell out of my head at almost 30. Those things seriously stink beyond shit or skunk or anything. Imagine huffing a corpse filled with bile-diarrhea from someone dying of cirrhosis. My mom got pissed off because I ditched my shoes on the way home, and she made me prove why (I had to go get them out of the bushes at school). She was mad until I brought them home, then she's like "Oh, FUCK. Get those out of here."
My favorite are the ones that look like rotting dog dicks. I think they're called dead man's fingers.
I've found stinkhorn when mushroom hunting in the PNW as well. They really do smell like rotting meat. They spread spores through contact with flies. It's one of those evolutionary leaps that pushes the limitations of imagination.
for some reason i associate the smell of an unknown fungus from my dreams with my own death. It smells worse than any chemical but is organic, and it comes with the sounds of a membrane tearing. It is a rubbery horrible nightmare, and i've never smelled one of these, but i goddamn bet you i would have a stroke because it smells like the smell i had in that dream.