Now, it seems, the marriage of entertainment and politics has been fully consummated — producing a hail of yo-momma jokes, boot bashing, birtherism, illicit peeks at voter data, cellphone destruction (in a blender) and campaign messaging communicated via YouTube comedy clip.

A few nights ago, Mr. Cruz, the Princeton grad and Texan, walked into the lobby of a hotel here — still swaddled in his winter coat and scarf — whipped out his iPhone and previewed a future Twitter post: a Monty Python video that he used to mock the cowardice of his chief rival.

That would be Donald J. Trump, who hours earlier had withdrawn from a Republican debate to protest the presence of a moderator, Megyn Kelly, whom he might or might not have accused of menstruating onstage during their first run-in.

All the while, the onetime Trump slayer, Carly Fiorina, has slipped into polling oblivion, dashing Republican dreams of a businesswoman with Clinton-esque gravity and none of the political headaches. In recent weeks, she has by turns rooted against her alma mater in the Rose Bowl (because it was playing the University of Iowa), pledged $2 million to charity if Mr. Trump agreed to debate her (because a “super PAC” supporting Mr. Cruz had offered $1.5 million) and quipped that she actually enjoyed spending time with her husband, “unlike another woman in this race.”