Jury Duty: A Real Life Truman Show

Truman syndrome is defined as a type of delusion in which the person believes that their life is a staged reality show or that they're being watched by cameras it's a symptom of psychosis but many psychologists disagree on whether or not Truman syndrome is a result of the popularity of reality TV shows or something innate for people that are predisposed to psychosis or delusions among the Skeptics Jill P Weber was quoted saying on the subject if we lived in a world with no TV and entertainment was only in the form of tribal dance someone who's psychotic May begin to believe that the dance is only for them but one thing that's definitely true and most people can agree on is that the idea of being watched at all times everyone lying to you and everybody not being real is actual nightmare Fuel and Beyond just being lied to Beyond just living in a facade imagine being lied to for 17 days while things get seemingly more and more unbelievable all in a seemingly normal setting jury duty this is exactly what happened to Ronald Gladden and you may be asking who the dick balls is Ronald Gladden and what is jury duty last week when my father-in-law told me hey you need to check out this show called jury duty it's on freebie I said what is a freebie I like most people up until very recently had never heard of freebie and I was very wary of trying another streaming app I mean I was pissed off just by the name of it it's just so sticky and gross sounding like hey wanna lick my freebie wanna lick my dirty freaking freebie that I dropped on the floor but I got over it and I put on my big boy pantaloons and watch what I assumed was gonna be like a Judge Judy type of show there was no reason for me to assume that I think they just kind of sound the same phonetically so maybe Judge Judy jury duty but boy was I in for a shocker because this show is a mix of the office the rehearsal and Impractical Jokers that got dropped into a blender and it's a mostly delicious smoothie it's 95 amazing fun and quirky but it's also five percent psychological torture the premise is batshit crazy and honestly something only a manic person would think of at 3am when they're full of ideas and when you look at the creators of this show it's actually not surprising that it has a similar vibe to the office because surprise surprise two of the producers of the office worked on this show Lee Eisenberg and Gene stepinski Gene stepinski looks like he's in pain but he's I'm sure he's a fun guy the show is based around 12 jurors and 11 actors John Gladden is the only one who's under the impression that this is actual jury duty and he's taking part in a documentary about the judicial system and just Hong Kong before you go any further don't scream at me okay I'm gonna be talking about a lot of things about this show including spoilers I guess I don't feel like this is a show that can really get spoiled for you to be quite Frank hot dog hot dog hot dog but whatever just go watch it don't scream your little panties off at me jury duties eight episodes were filmed over the course of 17 days and I love this show for many reasons but one of the things I want to bring up that's a little weird is that I was under the impression this whole time that I was watching the show that this is simply just a prank show I'll let Ron gladden's expense and at the end he would just get paid off for his troubles and that's all it is but no in episode 8 it's revealed that this is less of a prank on him and more so a series of increasingly difficult morality tests you were presented day after day with countless challenges responsibilities and ethical dilemmas we've considered all the evidence presented during your trial and we've decided that you Ronald Gladden are a hero which is why I've already seen a few articles about this show asking is it ethical and I mean at the end of the show Ronald Gladden is awarded 100 000 I hereby award you the sum of one hundred thousand dollars congratulations so hey if it's unethical spank my ass and waterboard me into Oblivion because that's kind of a good deal especially in this economy anyways though let's get to the nitty-gritty let's hit the gritty let's hit the let's talk about what happens in the show before we get into more ethical debates because first of all just based off of entertainment alone this is a very like unique experience I mean maybe this is common I don't know but I feel like this this can't be that common because just crazy stuff keeps happening in episode 1 Ronald already seems like the most normal guy in the world respectfully if he was a cake he would look like this it feels weird to call Ronald Gladden the main character because he's quite literally just being himself and even though the rest of the cast is acting they fully commit to their roles and even in their documentary interviews they never slip up and act like they're real selves so I am like an anarchist of sorts like I don't believe in rules I don't like institutionalized systems of government it's just not my thing but then on the other hand I'm also kind of a fun girl and you can either view that as a questionable decision by the writers and producers or enjoy it because in my opinion it helps keep you in the immersion of it all like Ronald we have no idea what these people's real personalities are I like your classes okay you look like Christopher Robin each one of these actors does a crazy amount of improv and it's seriously impressive but a huge standout is James Marsden who plays an over-the-top satirical version of himself hi James Morrison this is nice how are you feeling after you know feeling like I don't really want it oh my God I love James Marsden and no it's not just because I kind of think he looks like germa a little bit it's because he's underrated he went off in Enchanted I've been dreaming and you know who who could forget him in Sonic the Hedgehog not me I watched it and no I didn't turn it off after 30 minutes leave me alone why why is he turning off they didn't show any Sonic fee pics that you did you buy or rent that's another and James is not only like one of the essential fake jurors he's also like a pivotal role in the storyline James immediately tries to get released from his duties by saying that he's too famous and he's too much of a distraction I feel like there's a chance that I might be an unwelcome uh distraction why is it sir I'm a recognizable public figure respectfully I don't recognize you and when that doesn't work he hires Paparazzi to come distract the courtroom which immediately backfires because he gets the case sequestered we are going to sequester the jury you will bring personal belongings for at least a week and if you're not a total dork you probably don't know what a sequestering is so here you go nerds out there you can go ahead and Skip ahead 10 seconds sequestering is the act of isolating someone or an entire jury to preserve fairness during a trial so they are not influenced by the opinions of journalists friends or family and when you're sequestered you have a very limited access to phones you can't watch television thus creating the perfect scenario for Ronald to not be able to ask anybody questions outside of his face fake peers complete isolation sort of like a cult think of going too far with that comparison you say you say Nikki that's a little dramatic okay isolation is one of the first things that Kohl's try to do to you they cut off members from the outside world and even each other to produce intense introspection confusion loss of perspective and a distorted sense of reality look at me I know a thing or two about Colts I read a book once don't worry about which one it was the main juror characters are Noah a dorky mormon-leaning guy who is blatantly being taken advantage of by his girlfriend that's her girlfriend I mean yeah it's my girlfriend but who's that that could be someone's cousin maybe or Jeannie who is obsessed with Noah you just looked cute over here I'm sorry you like reminded me of someone but then I was like oh I actually like wanted to like ask you if he wanted like a Chili butter like a big hunk Ken a super quiet and polite owner of uh uh I am a owner and manager of uh two gumball machines and the sticker machine there's Todd a socially awkward inventor today he showed up wearing chair pants which he calls chance to abbreviate and of course there's James Marsden yeah I don't know what his plan was because he couldn't legally operate that forklift I mean he doesn't work there he's not licensed to do it the most important juror of all of course though is Ronald the real one and this show resulted in Ronald being adored by hundreds and thousands of people which is like very easy to see look at his Instagram they love the guy and a huge reason for that is the way that he treated people throughout the show no matter how quirky or strange they were a great example of that is pretty much any time he has an interaction with Todd I think Todd looks great the thing that made me happy was that everything that I've been trying to do to instill some self-confidence into him I mean it clearly is working I mean Todd wears [ __ ] chance to court yet he has nothing but positive things to say about that you know what I mean yeah I'm fine sorry I was just embarrassed dude don't worry about it man no you're not you're fine [ __ ] happens you know what you take some risks sometimes you know not all of them pay off and he even watches A Bug's Life with Todd to help Inspire him he's trying to introduce technology into their lives that's exactly what Todd is wanting to do you know that's what he's passionate about and I think it's really cool so I showed him that movie to kind of let him know that you know those people tend to be misunderstood in society just like it's portrayed in the movie I feel like they do a perfect job you know he's kind of an outcast people think he's a weirdo they push him off to the side and all he's trying to do is just help in his own way [Music] with all the fake jurors and their relationship to Ronald in mind let's talk about the [Music] Trevor the defendant is a character that's deliberately set up to look guilty at first glance he was an employee of Jacqueline Hillgrove or I'm used to people call me shakui at her store called cinnamon and Sparrow Trevor allegedly came into work drunk and high one day he showed up disruptive to work clearly intoxicated it was evident to everyone that the defendant both used drugs at work and encouraged others to do so he tried to press a bunch of shirts but ultimately [ __ ] up and misprinted thousands of shirts all while [ __ ] and pissing on himself injured party found unresponsive covered in destroyed property when he became responsive he blurted out my bad that's on me also of note he had emptied his bowels which supposed supposedly caused Jacqueline sales to decline drastically my client was left with an irate customer three thousand unusable units of product and a downturn in business from which it never recovered Jacqueline's a Nepal baby she's very out of touch with any real world problems so she says stuff like this from as early as I can remember people would taunt me they called me jackpot Jackie because I'm from a wealthy family and it's honestly really funny she's like a parody of like Gwyneth Paltrow or something I was bullied every day multiple times a day for being tall and thin average Jacqueline L every person who's defending Trevor in this trial is also really just slandering him like even his own defense attorney Sean Sanders completely turns on him halfway through the trial would you even hire you don't you think it would be kind of irresponsible for anybody to hire you to come and work for them no that's enough stop because although Trevor is a little troubled like even in the courtroom he's slamming his fist down on the table he's visibly angry there's plenty of evidence to suggest that he is in fact not liable which the fake jurors do try to guide Ronald to without making it obvious like in episode 4 all of the jurors go to Jacqueline's Factory to see where the incident took place and Lonnie purposefully points out to Ronald that there are marks from barrels that have been moved therefore adding some weight to the fact that Trevor claimed that he had unsafe work conditions and large barrels of chemicals at his workstation the Leaky barrels all around here filled with chemicals there there were barrels there okay okay Lonnie also guides Ronald up into a storage area that he didn't want to explore by himself and this was something that they really needed to get orchestrated because Todd was also up there and they had planned an event where Todd spills water on his shirt and ultimately puts on one of the misprints he passed out under a pile of t-shirts soaked in his own urine which reveals that the misprint says jorf um if fashion wise does it look okay what the [ __ ] is going on they go to Margaritaville later that night and a group of old patriotic right-wing looking ass old guy ass guys or like hey who is that guy we love his shirt hi Ashley nice to meet you oh thank you so much oh thank you and that's when suddenly people around the restaurant Express discomfort with the fact that his shirt says jorf I did have some customers complain about your shirt and um it's something very offensive no I'm sorry I didn't mean to cause any trouble so what does jorf mean you might be asking well it turns out to be a racist dog whistle I'm gonna look it up I'm gonna look it up it says it's a secret code for white supremacists to identify each other what and boy did I really expect that to come back into the plot of the fake court case I thought it was going to be an explanation as to why Jacqueline was trying so hard to pass that blame on to Trevor because maybe they were purposefully made dwarf shirts and she didn't want to take the blame for that maybe Jacqueline is freaking racist and I really think that would have tied things together in the end with Trevor being innocent and maybe that was on the table but it didn't come up because most of this show is improvised so if that had been questioned maybe that would have been unveiled I think Jacqueline [ __ ] racist but I digress poor Todd though all he wanted was to not be slimy and he ended up looking like a racist and amidst all this chaos Ronald gets appointed to before person giving him even more responsibility over what happens to Trevor I'm hoping that you are up for it you're the guy who's in charge if he's gonna go to jail or not if his life is going to be changed negatively for years to come it's a big responsibility a responsibility that he didn't even want the judge yet he takes it so seriously and takes it so well in stride to try to do the right thing and throughout all of this of course Ronald is pointing out bizarre things that are happening this is insane there's so many crazy things and every time Ronald brings up anything being bizarre none of the other cast members will bite he just keeps waiting for somebody to agree with him about all this insanity and nobody ever does how are you that psychic because this happens every day Barb there has not been a single day that we've had that's just been smooth and did an interview with Ronald he actually says that every time he began to question something like that out loud the whole team was in communication with each other and would pull back and have a completely boring six hours for the rest of the day I knew in my gut the whole time that just something wasn't right and they got me on camera multiple times saying like I'm on reality TV you know but in order for me to like actually entertain that idea like that's such a deep Rabbit Hole like I have to start questioning everything and for me to think that my entire reality and the whole world around me was fake that was even crazier than what was actually happening so I mean basically I just chose the reality that made the most sense so on the day of the reveal when he's telling me this to have him confirm what I was thinking the whole time like I thought that was the lie like I couldn't get beyond that but as soon as I would voice any sort of concern or if I would show any sort of Suspicion they were getting real-time feedback from the actors and the director Jake simanski he would just say you know you guys we're pulling it back get ready for nothing for the rest of this I don't know what to think Marlon you're losing my mind but but it feels like the whole world revolves around me somehow a lot of world for one man Truman sure that's not wishful thinking foreign all right let's get into the morality test morality time baby are you kidding me if there's one thing we want to do to somebody is put them on the spot to make the right or wrong decision for millions of people to see I kind of [ __ ] up numbering these this is definitely the most important one but let's talk about a less important one first so another thing that happened at Margaritaville was that Noah accidentally got drunk and he's never been drunk before so he breaks up with his sussy suspicious girlfriend are you okay yeah I just had a crazy conversation with my girlfriend how'd you call her there's a phone in the kitchen what happened I just told her what that the Cody thing is old [ __ ] and this honestly starts him on a character Arc that is completely worthy of its own sitcom but Ronald is forced to be in Noah's business a variety of times Noah specifically asked him for advice on what to do with his girlfriend stalker man thanks man I appreciate it yeah make sure you drink water man hydrate and even prompts him to talk to her on the phone to try to prove to him that he broke up with her while she was drunk and it didn't mean anything you know what she's not mad is she oh she hung up and so and since Noah is insanely shy he needs a wingman to get with Genie and he steps up to that and is like a big brother to him almost instantaneously he's training like right now he wants to hang out with you and even when weirder things come up like Noah literally asks him to help him soak with Genie and if you don't know what soaking is it's the act of but not really because you're not the one and God doesn't think that it's a sin as long as you're not thrusting another morality test that they throw his way is James marsden's big ass turd so James clogs the toilet with a hilariously huge fake turd and he's seemingly very embarrassed about it I gotta be honest with you that that was me uh but please don't tell anybody and Ronald completely takes the blame for it even though it was like a crazy poop like this is like a crazy poop okay guys we're good to go or something else beautiful so that was you huh it might have been obviously I can't show it to you unpixelated because I don't think YouTube would like it very much if I showed you poop Susan I know you're not in charge anymore but let me show poop so Ken's morality test has got to be one of my favorites Ken gets Ronald to play a fictional Korean board game with him called you with like an impossibly crazy standard of gameplay like the most unhinged gameplay you'll ever see Ronald ends up winning the game okay I have never seen this what happened it was first you win the game I and Ken insists that he owes him two thousand dollars because of some multiplier that Ronald hit I promise I will owe you no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no that's a ridiculous number but no matter how much Ken begs him he will not let him even consider paying him two thousand dollars I'm not taking 20 from you let alone two thousand dollars he literally wants his mom to sell her rare Beanie Babies over this if your mom's mom see baby I will I will be mad at you can the Princess Diana I don't no the most important morality test of course was defending Trevor because Against All Odds Against All slander Ronald made sure to convince all these fake jurors that he was in fact not liable like Jacqueline's lawyer comes in with various smear campaigns even against Trevor's own friend who speaks highly about him it's true isn't it sir that you were once arrested for masturbating in a public movie theater that's correct isn't it but regardless of whether or not Trevor's friend jerks off to robots he like said that Trevor was a really nice guy but then it came out later that he masturbated his penal off at the Grove what was the movie as um Pacific Rim Uprising Ronald was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt I mean damn they even had his own mother come in and about him I'm sick of having my house beat a mess all the time and I just ain't living in it I hate living in it saying he's irresponsible all he does is smoke the Zaza his own mama called him a bum and I mean if that makes you a criminal then damn lock me up in the end Ronald was able to pass all of the morality tests with flying colors and the show isn't wrong about how infectious Ronald's positivity is Ronald's refreshing kindness and relatability is both what makes this such a fun show and also what makes it kinda creepy Mr four person could you come up here with the verdict here we go everything is The Truman Show is a 1998 sci-fi drama where the main character Truman Burbank finds that he has been an unsuspecting star of a reality TV show he's filmed for 24 hours a day things in his life are manipulated in order to further the director's plot of the show the director's goal is ultimately to capture Ronald's real emotions and make him as relatable as possible the audience ooze and Oz as he does everyday acts of kindness in Insidious detail is that there are ad placements orchestrated by his fake peers around him anytime Ronald doubts the world around him every actor in his fictional World pivots to prevent him from finding out the truth in this interview James Marsden remarks about how he at one point questioned the ethics of this show at first I was like what you know wait we're like fooling this guy for three and a half weeks of his life I started question the morality of this but like he was such a good human being and in this interview Ronald Gladden remarks about how the show made him feel paranoid in some ways did it take you to adjust back to real life oh it so I didn't go back to work for easily a month after I found out like it was it was quite the process I didn't even begin to process how I was feeling about it until the weekend after I actually James was wonderful about this I was messaging him the weekend after and I was like hey I'm kind of feeling a little paranoid I don't know if this is normal I like are there still cameras following me and so James just being the wonderful human that he is he calls me right up um we were on the phone for 30 45 minutes and he really started to help me well first firstly he assured me there are no cameras following me anymore and then he started helping me just kind of work through all these feelings even though he knew that he was being filmed part of the time for this fake documentary there were plenty of other hidden cameras that he was entirely unaware of and even though he himself says that he feels so much love and support from the cast and the crew of the show he still agrees that he did in fact live out a real life Truman show everyone's comparing these to The Truman Show of course you are the real life Truman Show yeah truthfully I think that is the best way to describe it I got Truman showed in real life like they created an entire world around me more than just the courtroom you know like the hotel I was at was fake anytime we went out I was surrounded by actors I was always being escorted like my entire world was fake was nothing real you were real that's what made you so good to watch what I'm saying is it was awesome to meet fake there's no except for one important element you the psychological effects of reality TV shows have been called outright despicable at times with some of its former Stars claiming that it completely ruined their life now is that what's happening to Ronald I don't think so and only Ronald really knows how he feels about this whole situation and he does genuinely seem like such a sweet guy so I can only wish him the best and I'm not mad about being bestowed the title of a hero you know I'm thrilled but I it's almost like I disagree with it because if you look at everything that I did like ultimately I was just trying to be just a decent human being you know just extending kindness and being respectful to everyone just automatically like I feel like those should be the default so that's why it's just a weird feeling because I just feel like like that's how we should be right like how is that heroic and just like with Truman one has to wonder what happened to him after he re-entered the real world the [ __ ] out of me hi hi you know I didn't know you were in the freaking closet you maniac I'm trying to talk about serious stuff do you have any comment on this Truman was the most famous person in the world basically but when he leaves this fake facade of a world then what then what does he do people know who he is but does he know what he wants to do and I think Ronald is an amazing person and that he will find success in whatever he chooses to do but I think it's a lot to be thrust unwittingly into the Limelight without even really ever having thought of becoming a reality TV show star or thought of becoming an influencer in any way it definitely opens up the door to a lot of criticism and a lot of pressure to what he can and should do then what's next I mean your life has has I hate to use that word it's taken a pivot I mean you're definitely facing in a different direction uh what are you thinking I mean are you getting a glimpse into a whole different world that you may want to explore or are you is being forced upon you I like this for instance right now I mean what are you thinking so I'm just kind of just taking it day by day I'm definitely intrigued I'm definitely interested and I'm just fielding all the opportunities coming my way and taking a day by day is the best way [Music] myself would you wanna maybe possibly sometime go out for some pizza [Music] laughs foreign [Music]

Channel: Nikki Carreon

Views: 223,066

Keywords: jury duty, jury duty show, freevee, reality shows, kitchen nightmares, gabi belle, bar rescue, andy king, chad chad, video essay, flushed away, movie commentary, 24 frames of nick, danny gonzalez, kurtis conner, drew gooden, jarvis johnson, noel miller, funkyfrogbait, annamarieforcino, eddy burback, junk drawer podcast, nickisnotgreen, jordan adika, jake doolittle, weird movies, comedy, pinely, video essays, netflix reality shows, 2000s reality tv, truman show

Id: TLVtmFDgQio

Length: 29min 43sec (1783 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 01 2023