Max Adler, who played David Karofsky on the show, talked about how he felt about Darrin Criss singing the song in 2012:

Darren and I are great friends; he killed the song in my opinion. I enjoy listening to that more than Young the Giant’s version. I listened to it when I got the script and I thought it was so brilliant. I loved Ryan Murphy from “Nip/Tuck” because of these kind of scenes where he’d play some amazing song that would inter-cut with an emotional scene. I thought this song was perfect, where it’s not too sad or depressing of a song that is forcing the way you think, but has that anger and rage to it that has a sense of something building and something mounting. Darren had emailed me the song the morning of shooting that scene, so I listened to it a few times in my trailer. I thought it was a brilliant performance on his part, and a brilliant choice on the writer’s part.

I don’t think we ever had the intent of the song in such a serious scene. It’s very, very intense, very, very impactful, and we most definitely empathized with that. All of us have been victims of bullying – and been bullies at some point in time. It’s something that hits everyone.

– Via Billboard (2012)

Obviously there is that initial feeling of, ‘Oh yeah, it’s Glee,’ and none of us watch ‘Glee’ and there are some problems with that. But at the end of the day I think we’re happier people are watching something that’s music-based. There’s so much bulls*** on television. I mean, there’s ‘Jersey Shore,’ y'know? With ‘Glee,’ there are a lot of people that it really strikes a chord with and they feel emotional about it and it appeals to them enough to watch it every week. There’s nothing we can say about that. We’re open for all applications for the music…and just excited and gracious and happy that people want to use our stuff.

– Via Billboard (2012)