I Kissed a Girl (Glee)

Written by Matthew Hodgson and directed by Tate Donovan, the episode aired on Fox in the United States on November 29, 2011, and featured the election for a new senior class president at McKinley High.

Kurt (Chris Colfer) and Blaine (Darren Criss) sing "Perfect" to her, which leaves her unimpressed, but Finn's slow, stripped-down rendition of "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" is better received.

Puck (Mark Salling) ostensibly sings "I'm the Only One" for Santana, but delivers most of the song to an embarrassed Shelby (Idina Menzel) in front of a suspicious Quinn (Dianna Agron).

Kurt's quest to become senior class president appears doomed and along with it his college prospects; he confesses to Rachel (Lea Michele) that he is thinking about stuffing the ballot box to ensure that he wins.

Rachel then arrives and confesses that she was the one who committed election fraud: the incident will go on her permanent record, she is suspended for a week and she is banned from participating in the impending show choir Sectionals competition.

[5] Other recurring guest stars who appear in this episode include Principal Figgins (Theba), teachers Shelby Corcoran (Menzel) and Mrs. Hagberg (Mary Gillis), Kurt's father and congressional candidate Burt Hummel (O'Malley), Coach Beiste (Jones), cheerleader Becky Jackson (Lauren Potter), school reporter Jacob Ben Israel (Josh Sussman), Troubletones member Sugar Motta (Vanessa Lengies) and New Directions member Rory Flanagan (Damian McGinty).

[6] Music in the episode includes the song from which it gets its title, Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl",[7] which was previously sung by Tina for her glee club audition in the show's pilot.

It was the first new episode since "Mash Off" had aired on November 16, 2012, and was in a new Friday evening time slot as opposed to the previously scheduled Wednesday broadcasts.

David Dale of the Sydney Morning Herald was scathing in his opinion of the show's rescheduling: "Channel Ten must be insane to waste a new season of Glee on a night when the target audience are all out trying to get alcohol with fake IDs.

Rae Votta of Billboard wrote that it "stumbles as much as it shines, with two plot lines-worth of structure that make sense, and two that fall completely flat".

[17] Rolling Stone's Erica Futterman stated that "while there were undeniably significant plot moments, the emotional depth was lacking", and Robert Canning of IGN said it was "kind of boring" and nothing happened to "make it better than bland".

[20] The Houston Chronicle's Bobby Hankinson looked on the episode more favorably, however, and maintained that while it did not achieve the level of the previous two, it was a "pretty strong outing nonetheless".

[22] Bell also complimented the sequence, though she criticized the next scene for showing "a happy, smiling Santana" with no further explanation, and Canning and Kubicek were also unhappy with her abrupt change in mood, as if nothing had happened.

Chaney wrote that she was acting "in an irrational manner that has no connection with reality", and Bell wondered if co-creator Murphy was "trying to make her the most hated character on 'Glee' ever".

[26] VanDerWerff was initially pleased that the show "acknowledged that all of her actions are driven by a deep, sucking need to be loved" and that "Puck gently told her that she was better than that, that she could put herself together again", but not that it then "just turned into more pointless Puck/Shelby/Quinn drama.

[17] Chaney thought that Sue "was back in fine, vindictive catchphrase-spewing form", and noted that "all the election subplots were tied up remarkably quickly".

[18][27] As for Burt's son, Kurt, Votta wanted to "leap through the television and explain to him that student council elections mean absolutely nothing" to his future college prospects, and Kubicek declared himself "sick" of that plot thread, which he called "just plain moronic".

[21] Chaney thought it was "decent but not as strong" as the previous episode, "Mash Off"; Futterman had a similar take and called it a "hodge-podge of songs that fit the bill but don't necessarily stand out", and "musically meh".

[19] Chaney was not very excited by Kurt and Blaine's rendition of "Perfect", while Raymund Flandez of The Wall Street Journal called it an "almost cloying duet".

[23][28] Entertainment Weekly's Abby West thought it was "sweetly" sung and "perfectly lovely", and Michael Slezak of TVLine said it "really picked up steam" as it progressed.

[29][30] Votta said that "what we got" was "wonderfully done, and a perfect balance of Darren Criss and Chris Colfer's musical strengths", but she was perplexed that they "cut the verses most relevant to Santana" yet "kept the cheeky rap bridge".

[10][24] Chaney wrote that "the execution felt emotionally flat" and gave it a "C", but West graded it a "B+" and said, "Coach Beiste's pain..... was clear in Dot Marie Jones' sad-hearted rendition".