By Jessica McBride Special to OnMilwaukee.com Published Feb 07, 2016 at 8:26 AM

The opinions expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the opinions of OnMilwaukee.com, its advertisers or editorial staff.

Did you see the hilarious GOP debate walk-on trainwreck video?

They won’t be able to outdo this one on SNL. To be blunt: The walk-on got all f*cked up.

You know how the candidates are announced as they walk, one-by-one, onto the debate stage? Well, that didn’t work out very well. They sort of looked like a multi-car pile-up. Or like cars that were stuck in a roundabout and didn’t know which way to go.

It was all quite metaphoric.

You had Ben Carson aimlessly wandering around the hall on live TV, looking like he had no idea what he was doing after he missed his cue (in fairness to him, his name was drowned out by the Christie applause).

Then Ted Cruz literally pushed his way past the hapless Carson.

Then, Marco Rubio literally pushed his way past Carson, only he smiled a lot as he did it.

Then, Jeb Bush literally pushed his way past Carson and Trump, but he looked awkward as he did it, creating a priceless freeze frame.

And they completely forgot to announce poor John Kasich!

It’s actually funnier if you watch it with the sound off.

The only guy who stopped? Donald Trump! Wouldn’t you expect Trump to be the guy who booted everyone out of the way? Of course, Trump has been trying to act like a nicer guy since he came in second in Iowa (sort of, anyway). Everyone else zipped past, and only Trump stopped to help Carson out.

Priceless TV.

The actual debate (remember that?) was also rather entertaining, but in a far more substantive way. Since this is a blog about the hilarious GOP walk-on train wreck video, I will boil down the actual debate summary this way.

It was the night of the governors. Chris Christie dominated (yes, Christie), but he did so by pushing Rubio around. Rubio had an awful first half, robotically repeating that Obama knows exactly what he is doing. What?! In fairness to Rubio, everyone knew that he wasn’t saying this as praise. But it was the start of a bad soundbite that probably slowed down the Rubio ascendancy as Christie did Trump’s dirty work and reminded everyone that Rubio is a charismatic young senator without much experience ... kind of like Obama.

The guy they forgot was excellent (yes, Kasich), while Jeb Bush had his best debate.

Trump was a lot nicer and mellower for the most part, but he didn’t dominate. Since he’s WAY ahead in the New Hampshire polls – and New Hampshire is not a caucus system like Iowa – this was probably wise. Trump didn’t do anything to hurt himself. He just stood there like a Cheshire cat watching everyone else pummel Rubio – namely Christie. Rubio had a strong second half, but it was too late. He played into themes that he’s a scripted phony. Even so, I still think he’s the Republicans' best general election hope.

Carson basically fell asleep on stage again, while Cruz looked like a jerk when it was brought up again what his people did to Carson in Iowa. He wasn’t awful, but he didn’t dominate.

None of it surpassed the opening.

Jessica McBride Special to OnMilwaukee.com

Jessica McBride spent a decade as an investigative, crime, and general assignment reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and is a former City Hall reporter/current columnist for the Waukesha Freeman.

She is the recipient of national and state journalism awards in topics that include short feature writing, investigative journalism, spot news reporting, magazine writing, blogging, web journalism, column writing, and background/interpretive reporting. McBride, a senior journalism lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, has taught journalism courses since 2000.

Her journalistic and opinion work has also appeared in broadcast, newspaper, magazine, and online formats, including Patch.com, Milwaukee Magazine, Wisconsin Public Radio, El Conquistador Latino newspaper, Investigation Discovery Channel, History Channel, WMCS 1290 AM, WTMJ 620 AM, and Wispolitics.com. She is the recipient of the 2008 UWM Alumni Foundation teaching excellence award for academic staff for her work in media diversity and innovative media formats and is the co-founder of Media Milwaukee.com, the UWM journalism department's award-winning online news site. McBride comes from a long-time Milwaukee journalism family. Her grandparents, Raymond and Marian McBride, were reporters for the Milwaukee Journal and Milwaukee Sentinel.

Her opinions reflect her own not the institution where she works.