Smelly Comedy?
How can you make the audience taste, touch, and smell comedy? By using descriptive language, you can make the audience actually experience these senses. What would make the audience cringe more: “You have bad breath” or “Your breath smells like sour milk mixed with puke”? Probably the latter. The average audience member can't help but imagine what that repulsive odor would smell like no matter how hard he tries not to.
Your imagery certainly doesn't have to be disgusting for it to work; it can be used for any kind of story. To get a sample of comedy's master storyteller using imagery to provoke emotions in his audience, check out Bill Cosby's 1966 album Wonderfulness and listen to the classic routine “The Chicken Heart.” It will make you feel like a kid who is frightened to death after seeing a scary movie.
It's like someone instructing you not to think of the color blue. You can't help yourself, you absolutely have to think of the color blue. In the same way, you can use taste, touch, and smell to make the audience feel as if they are experiencing what you are writing about.
Look to your own experience. Have you ever heard someone describe something disgusting? Something that tasted, felt, or smelled awful? As they described it, what did the listeners do? They probably cut the story short because they couldn't take it anymore. It's a visceral reaction. The brain is a powerful thing. Use your brain to mess with your audience's.
