Tinder CEO says he likes smart girls — but proves he doesn't know what 'sodomy' means in cringeworthy interview

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last updated 18 November 2015

Tinder CEO Sean Rad's latest interview was a bit of a PR catastrophe. Speaking to the U.K.'s Evening Standard shortly before Tinder's parent company, Match Group, goes public Wednesday evening, Rad was far from tight-lipped about his personal life.

In addition to revealing the number of women he's slept with (a "modest 20") and talking extensively about his mother, Rad tells an extended braggy anecdote involving a model that ends up proving he may not be quite sure what the word "sodomy" actually means:

He's desperate to impress on me how gallant he is, citing the fact that a "supermodel, someone really, really famous" has been "begging" him for sex "and I've been like, no." She's "taunted" him, he says, and "called me a prude.""She's one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen but it doesn't mean that I want to rip her clothes off and have sex with her. Attraction is nuanced. I've been attracted to women who are..." he pauses "...well, who my friends might think are ugly. I don't care if someone is a model. Really. It sounds clichéd and almost totally unbelievable for a guy to say this, but it's true. I need an intellectual challenge."He continues: "Apparently there's a term for someone who gets turned on by intellectual stuff. You know, just talking. What's the word?" His face creases with the effort of trying to remember. "I want to say 'sodomy'?"Rosette [Pambakian, Tinder's VP of communications and branding] shrieks: "That's it! We're going to be fired!" and Rad looks confused. "What? Why?"I tell him it means something else and he thumbs his phone for a definition. "What? No, not that. That's definitely not me. Oh, my God." [Evening Standard]