implicit adjective

[switchercat]

I found an interestingly ambiguous sentence in a segment of You Have Been Watching, a British television show, on YouTube. Part of the clip I saw involved the host giving a description of footage from another show. At one point, he comments:

"Matthew Kelly there, asking us to place bets. If I had to put money on it, I'd say he probably is."

Comments

[laura_anne]

Since it's Matthew Kelly, I'd be going with paedophile, personally.

[switchercat]

The clip is from 2009, and that news article is from 2003. I don't know if Matthew Kelly is/was well known enough for that piece of news about him to remain in public knowledge for six years.

The panelists' facial reactions do seem to me to indicate that the implied adjective is not a bad thing like "pedophile." :/ (Victoria Coren is smiling there, for instance.) Maybe they just both have really dark senses of humor, though.

[laura_anne]

Well, my mind went straight there...perhaps I'm just more twisted than the average person though.

[gbcahawk]

BrEng speaker from Brighton, England. Without even watching the clip, the implied word is "gay".

[mezzogiorno]

I agree with the above, I instantly thought "gay" upon watching.

As an aside, I do love Charlie Brooker.

[tinimaus]

I seem to remember that there was some speculation about him being gay or not at the time because of his rather camp mannerisms/way of speaking.

Ah, Charlie Brooker. At times, the man has made me laugh to the point of hyperventilating.

[hobbitblue]

Video is blocked for some weird reason, but it'll be "gay", I already know. And it'll be humourous rather than mean...