Should Jury Duty’s duped star Ronald be eligible for TV’s highest acting honor?

polygon.com:

Can an actor actually be the best actor if they don’t know they’re acting? That’s the conundrum at the heart of Jury Duty’s Emmy push. FreeVee, Amazon’s free, ad-supported streaming service, has submitted the mockumentary sitcom’s first season for several Emmy comedy categories, including acting, writing, and directing.

But the looming question reportedly being considered by the Television Academy is whether Ronald Gladden — the solar contractor from San Diego unaware that his jury summons is fake and everyone around him is an actor — is eligible for an acting award, per a report last week from Variety. The hope is that Ronald would be considered for the lead comedy actor race, facing off against award darlings like Bill Hader in Barry, Jason Sudeikis in Ted Lasso, and more.

In a week with a new Marvel movie, a new Zelda game, and Mother’s Day (PSA!), the question of whether a breakout TV performance that’s not quite performance counts as acting might not be the most pressing issue. Even if it’s just a way to drum up publicity for a show already benefiting from word-of-mouth, the decision could impact other shows like Murdervillethat skirt the line on the comedy/variety show divide. Like a good legal drama, there’s a lot to dig into in the name of justice. So what is the right thing for the Academy to do? Let’s hear the evidence.

Sure, Ronald doesn’t know he’s in a sitcom, and certainly doesn’t know he’s the regular Joe at the center of a lot of pageantry. But Jury Duty is a scripted show, with plotlines and characters happening all around him. Like Jenna Maroney on 30 Rock, Ronald has been living theatrically in everyday life, even if he doesn’t know it.

The uncouth way to say this is that Ronald has been giving one