Emmys: TVGuide.com's Picks for Supporting Actor in a Comedy

Emmy season is now upon us. Over the next two weeks, Emmy voters will be checking off names and shows they think are worthy of getting a nomination come July 14. We here at TVGuide.com have a few picks in mind ourselves. Next up: our dream ballot for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy:

Emmys: TVGuide.com's picks for supporting actress in a comedy

Garret Dillahunt, Raising Hope

The most lovable goofball dad this side of Phil Dunphy, Dillahunt's Burt was a quiet surprise this season. He never failed to entertain with his borderline inappropriate silliness that was all the while sweet and endearing — just like the show itself. Besides, how completely refreshing is it to see Dillahunt not play crazed serial killers?
Nolan Gould, Modern Family
The Emmys are notoriously ageist — the last minor to be nominated was Claire Danes 16 years ago and no minor has ever won for series acting — but if the academy were to break the dry spell this year, we hope it does so with Gould. His Luke — so dim, yet so bright — is a scene-stealer and a comedy goldmine between his crazy antics and dry one-liners, delivered with Gould's precocious deadpan aplomb.
Ed O'Neill, Modern Family
As the heart of and the glue that holds Modern Family together, O'Neill makes it all look easy — maybe even too easy since he was the sole adult cast member who was overlooked last year. Furthermore, he was never even nominated during Married... with Children's 11-year run (albeit, the low-brow comedy was never an Emmy darling.) A team player to the end, O'Neill once again opted to submit himself in supporting instead of lead and we can only hope voters right their wrong last year.

Jane Lynch to host Emmys

Nick Offerman, Parks and RecreationLet's be real: Ron Swanson is a genius of a character. He loves breakfast buffets, woodworking, whiskey and steaks; moonlights as a jazz musician; hates the government; and thinks a turkey burger is a turkey leg stuffed inside a hamburger. None of it would work, however, without Offerman's subtle and minimalist performance that delicately balances Ron's surly exterior with the gentle lug underneath that emerges every now and then with Leslie. At the very least, can we award him something for having the greatest mustache ever? Danny Pudi, Community
Pudi continues to impress as freak/geek/Cougar Town enthusiast Abed, but his standout moment this season came from not playing him. In "Critical Film Studies" — on the surface a Pulp Fiction homage, but really a stealth tribute to My Dinner with Andre — Pudi gamely inhabited the anti-Abed, a dark and stern "normal" grown-up whose epiphany has left him all too happy to trash his real pop culture-loving self. Of course, it was all a prank on Jeff — so Abed and so brilliantly portrayed by Pudi.

Jason Segel, How I Met Your Mother

After being criticized for allegedly phoning it in the past couple of seasons, Segel delivered twofold this year with his juiciest story line yet — the death of Marshall's father — that allowed him to show off his equally formidable dramatic chops while still keeping us in stitches. His effortless switch from unbridled joy to inconsolable heartache after Lily breaks the news is even more remarkable when you consider that Segel didn't know what Alyson Hannigan was going to say and ad-libbed, "I'm not ready for this." Who would you like to see nominated?