What does devil’s advocate mean?
Idiom Meaning:
adopt an opposing belief just for the sake of the argument
Examples of this Idiom in Movies & TV Shows:
CSI: NY “Damned If You Do” (2010)
Time of Scene:
Sid Hammerback: Often times, damage to the temporal lobe results in seizures and those seizures have a tendency to start in the hands.
Detective Mac Taylor: So it’s possible the movement of her finger up and down was involuntary. You think I made a mistake showing her the photograph?
Sid Hammerback: Well, like you said, she was responsive and obeying commands. I hate to play devil’s advocate here, Mac, but a defense attorney would have a field day with that ID. Bottom line, we don’t have a picture of what happened in her brain when she moved her finger. So there’s just no way to know if her ID is reliable.
Detective Mac Taylor: And now she’s defending her son.
Smallville “Doomsday” (2009)
Time of Scene:
Chloe Sullivan: Where’s Clark? You found a way to kill him, didn’t you? And Clark wouldn’t go along with it.
Black Canary: No. He wanted to play devil’s advocate with the actual devil. Split the Kryptonian from the human.
Chloe Sullivan: Black kryptonite.
Oliver Queen: Only one glitch in his plan. The whole beast part.
Bart Allen: Last time we checked, he couldn’t control his thornier alter ego.
Chloe Sullivan: No, but I can. As long as I stay with him, he doesn’t change. Please don’t do this to him.
Davis Bloome: They have to. Chloe, it’s not working anymore.
Lost in America (1985)
Time of Scene:
David Howard: Now, play devil’s advocate. Can’t you live 20 years on $145,000 if you’re living out of a motor home and just eating and painting and writing books? I mean, this is what we talked about when we were 19. Remember, we kept saying, “Let’s find ourselves,” but we didn’t have a dollar! So, we watched television instead.
Submit Devil’s Advocate Idiom Examples
Do you know an example of this idiom from another movie or TV show?
Please send us your suggestion, and we could feature it in the next update.
Click here to submit idiom examples.
