Well, ok. Let's take Judd Apatow. His movies can be read as being horribly offensive. He knows full well that they can be taken that way. However, he thinks it's all in good fun. He's just ~pushing the envelope. It's not maliciousness so much as a lack of thoughtfulness and self-involvement. I think that if you're going to play with being offensive, you've got to be really self-aware. Otherwise that kind of humor falls flat - it's easy to see the deep-seated, truly offensive attitudes lurking within it.

Not to say that this last ep revealed the SPN writers' deep-seated disrespect for other cultures. I think what it actually revealed is the SPN writers' distrust of organized religion. Anyway, I'm not ready to make a moral judgment here. *g* But it does seem to me that SPN isn't afraid of offending people, and loves the shock humor. It's also true that they don't, in general, do much research and are happy to rip off other SF/F works.

Also, is that a Bela icon?