When this episode first aired it was universally hated. We were all celebrating, we were all very happy with the episode. We couldn't wait to show it off and was expecting all of this positive feedback all over message boards... I mean the vitriol we all got.. we made people so cringey that they couldn't take it.

Once you've seen the episode and watch it again knowing what's coming, then you can really enjoy it. This is similar to what happened with "Freaks and Geeks", a lot of people thought it was too uncomfortable when watching it for the first time.

https://peopletv.com/video/couch-surfing-paul-feig/