Could this week get any more cringeworthy for Presidential candidate Ted Cruz?

Forget Big Brother – if you’re after famous people totally embarrassing themselves on television, you’ll want to tune in to the US Presidential campaign trail, and in particular the recent awkwardness of White House contender Ted Cruz.

The Texas senator and Nickleback fan had to deal with perhaps the greatest heckle to date last night, and one that clearly came straight from the playground.

At the end of a speech in Iowa in which Cruz had patriotically signed off with a rousing “God bless Iowa, God bless you”, one impressive heckler yelled "Ted Cruz looks so weird" and pretended to repeatedly puke into a nearby bin before being escorted out. Spectacular stuff.

Cruz did manage to save some face with a pretty witty comeback, calling “Is that Donald Trump yelling in the back?” But not even a Gervais-level comedy retort could save him from this phenomenal backfire just hours before.

The age-old political trick of hugging or kissing a child to look like the perfect family man has scuppered many a vote-hungry candidate. But when it’s your own daughter that sabotages your very public display of fatherly affection, and actually tries to flick you away, well, you're into stratospheric levels of cringe that we can't peel our eyes away from. Ouch.

But don’t feel too bad for the Republican front runner. He’s had plenty of practise at dealing with awkward family hugs, as detailed in these outtakes from his campaign video.

Oh America. Land of the free, and totally awkward.