How Many Laughs Did The Office Mine From Its Glee Viewing Party?

It sounded like a brilliant, made-for-sweeps idea: The Office's Dunder Mifflin gang would get together to watch an episode of Glee. Producers were so pumped by the comedic potential of their plan that even though their bosses at NBC weren't thrilled about promoting another network's hit, they went ahead with it anyway.

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"It's not just a popular show, but a phenomenon," Office executive producer Paul Lieberstein told Zap2it last month. "We watch a lot of TV; we watch Glee. We like it. ... I don't know. Someone said the words 'Glee viewing party' and it just made us laugh so hard that we had to do it."

The set-up was simple: In her efforts to unite Gabe with the rest of the office — and in particular, the resistant Michael — Erin organizes a Glee viewing party to be hosted by Gabe at his place.

So, how'd they do? Did the gleeks rule? Did the haters? Was it funny? Here's what we learned:

Michael initially feigned ignorance ("Glee? What is Glee? Some sort of television program?" he asks), but of course he was only kidding. "I am a total gleek. I love it. You know what my favorite character is? The invalid," he says.

Erin picked Glee because she was inspired by its message of the mash-up. "There's this thing on Glee called 'mash-up' where two things that don't go together make one great song," she says. "Take Gabe; take Michael. You make GaMike. Best friends."

Kelly is the disappointed Glee super-fan. She says, exasperated, "That show! I mean, first they say Mr. Schu doesn't know anything about choreography and then, like, three episodes later he's this fantastic choreographer," she grouses. "Pick a lane people!" (Really? We're pretty sure Will was busting a move to Kanye's "Gold Digger" in Episode 2.) She does kind of nail Jesse St. James' abrupt about-face though. "What was with Jesse's sudden turn on Rachel between 'Dream On' and 'Funk'? Honestly, that show -- it's irresponsible," she says. (For the record, Kelly, it was because those episodes were scheduled to run out of order. Blame Fox.)

Dwight, on the other hand, is not a fan. "Of all the feelings to base a show around. Thirst -- now that's a show I'd watch," he reports.

Phyllis is that person at the party. ("Which one is Glee?" she asks sheepishly.)

Oscar is that other person. (Talking during the show, wondering aloud whether or not he's seen Dianna Agron on Friday Night Lights.)

Kelly came up with a great idea for Glee, should they ever decide to use it. "Okay, they did 'Blinded by the Light,' and they did it with an actual blind guy," she says. Fans know that didn't happen in the episode they were watching, "Duets," but couldn't you totally see them doing that at some point?

Creed came up with another when he "spoiled" the end of the episode. "Puck and Finn worked it out and the solo is now a duet," he says. That's a pairing Glee fans wouldn't mind at all.

What do you think? Did The Office make good use of Glee? Should the Glee camp be proud to have inspired this episode? Or did the comedy fall flat?