 Willa Paskin of "New York", however, criticized the choice of sample and was disappointed with the chorus, feeling it was "shoehorned into the rest of the song".Todd Martens of the "Los Angeles Times" called "The Time (Dirty Bit)" "the most assertive party song of the year".Digital Spy's Nick Levine gave a review of three stars out of five, disliking the many elements that constituted the song.