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A TikTok video showing a National Day Parade marching contingent on Saturday, July 30, during Preview 2, has been watched close to 600,000 times in just over 13 hours online.

The reason?

The front half and the back half of the contingent, identified as the Commandos owing to their red berets, were marching out of sync during the final rehearsal, slightly more than a week before the real show on Aug. 9.

The video by @weenstern was uploaded to TikTok at about 2pm on Sunday.

@weenstern NDP Preview 2! Usually see 1/2 march out of sync lah... but this time in a big section of them went out of sync... Just for laughs but thank you to all the contingents for marching at NDP2022! Looks really great! #sgtiktok #ndp_2002 #singapore #fyp ♬ 芭比q了 - 邓家忠

What went wrong

Another video by @greyearlgreyearl subsequently showed the precise moment the marching went out of sync.

@greyearlgreyearl Learn from the mistake so actual day will look good on tv! #ndp #ndp2022 #sgtiktok ♬ original sound - Earl Grey

Apparently, the contingent marching at the front sped up suddenly, while those at the back still kept time.

An earlier video by @greyearlgreyearl showed the marching going out of sync, and the third person from the back clearly tried to keep time with the people in front -- thinking it was the correct tempo -- and stood out like a sore thumb.

@greyearlgreyearl Best combat unit but can’t march in step 🫣 please don’t do this on actual day #ndp #sgtiktok ♬ 芭比q了 - 邓家忠

Responses

Responses to the videos ran the gauntlet of reactions.

There were the obvious trolls who said those full-time national servicemen who messed up needed to sign extra duty.

However, a good number of commenters were less harsh and empathised with the difficulty of keeping time during a parade with multiple moving parts and having to do it under pressure in front of a massive live audience.

Those who were kinder also said the NSFs had to give up their previous weekends to take part in the NDP and they should be applauded.

Others said this was the reason why there are rehearsals in the first place before the actual event, because these things happen and can be rectified.

Top photos via @weenstern & @greyearlgreyearl