What makes earlobes stink up the room when those big, black ear things are removed?

To whet your appetite on Superbowl Sunday I was thinking about a show in which this teenage boy had huge, black circular things in the center of his earlobes which made a hole. When the homeowner ordered him to remove them he laughed as the homeowner and his wife ran to the end of the room and almost threw up from the stench when he took them out. They told him to put them back in. What causes the odor?