Trying to add Popoular Threads Block

[metalguy639]

I need to add a popular threads block to my forum sidebar, I do not need a cms widget I already have that working. I found some code on vbulletin.com forums but NO ONE wants to answer questions on how to make it work. Maybe someone here can help me. I just need to make this code work in a forum block. This is the code:

global $vbulletin;
$msglength = 150;
$dots = '...';
$thread = $vbulletin->db->query_read("SELECT thread.threadid, thread.title, thread.views, post.pagetext AS message
FROM " . TABLE_PREFIX . "thread AS thread
LEFT JOIN " . TABLE_PREFIX . "post AS post ON (post.postid = thread.firstpostid)
WHERE 1=1
ORDER BY thread.views DESC
LIMIT 0,5");
$row = array();
if ($vbulletin->db->num_rows($thread) > 0) 
{
    while($rowthread = $vbulletin->db->fetch_array($thread)){
        $row[] = array(
                    'contentid'        => $rowthread['threadid'], 
                    'message'        => $rowthread['message'], 
                    'url'            => fetch_seo_url('thread', $rowthread),
                    'title'            => $rowthread['title'],
                    'views'            => $rowthread['views']);
    }
}
$static = '<ul>';
for($i = 0; $i < count($row); $i++)
{  
    $static .= '<li>';
        $static .= '<a href="' .$row[$i]['url'] . '"><b>' . $row[$i]['title'] . '</b></a><br/> ';
        $static .= '<span style="font-size:11px">(' . $row[$i]['views'] . ' views)</span>';
        if(strlen($row[$i]['message']) > $msglength)
            {
                $row[$i]['message'] = substr($row[$i]['message'],0,$msglength);
                $row[$i]['message'] = substr($row[$i]['message'],0,strrpos($row[$i]['message']," ")) . $dots;
            }
        $static .= '<ul>';    
            $static .= '<li>';
                $static .= strip_bbcode($row[$i]['message'],true,true,false,true,false) . '<br/><br/>';
            $static .= '</li>';
        $static .= '</ul>';
    $static .= '</li>';
}
$static .= '</ul>';
$output = $static;

It works great with a CMS widget but when I try to make it work on the forum sidebar all I get is the header of the block and nothing else. No threads no nothing and it breaks the skin like a div tag was out of place or something. I have made sure that I set the block to be php and that its active. IN the content box as the instructions you see this:

Specify the content you want to display. If this is PHP code, use a return statement to send your output to the block. For example:

    $my_output = 'Hello, world.';
    return $my_output;

I do not know how to apply that to the code above to make it work and I'm guessing that is what I need. Does anyone know how to make the above code work?