It occurs to me that I did not answer the question myself.
In my regular Monday night game, which used to be in person but moved online during lockdown and never moved off line, we play for 2 or 2.5 hours and we do not take it very seriously. We joke around a lot and no one real focuses on playing in character in any meaningful way beyond a few easily remembered character traits (for example, my warlock is a selfish jerk who tries to convince the insufferable cleric to make potential fatal decisions whenever possible). We are foul mouthed GenX dudes and we like it that way.
I sometimes try and inject a little more seriousness in other games. If I had to peg the level of seriousness I am aiming for to a media example, I would say the Captain America MCU movies -- not a jokey as Ant Man or whatever, with a strong throughline of melodrama and sort of seriousness.
I used to prefer a more serious approach due to the group. We joked, of course, but our 20 year campaign was definitely more emotionally grounded with more serious in-world social and political issues. in that campaign, there were real tears on a couple of occasions due to PC or NPC deaths or other major campaign events. Part of me would love to find that again, but I just don't think I will ever have that kind of group again, or the circumstances that allowed it to develop.
I run games at cons a lot and when i do that I try and find a balance. I want everyone to take the game seriously, even while having fun, so generally tone down the banter and OOC jokes. But every con table is different and ultimately the composition of the players will determine where that table sits on the humor vs seriousness scale.
In my regular Monday night game, which used to be in person but moved online during lockdown and never moved off line, we play for 2 or 2.5 hours and we do not take it very seriously. We joke around a lot and no one real focuses on playing in character in any meaningful way beyond a few easily remembered character traits (for example, my warlock is a selfish jerk who tries to convince the insufferable cleric to make potential fatal decisions whenever possible). We are foul mouthed GenX dudes and we like it that way.
I sometimes try and inject a little more seriousness in other games. If I had to peg the level of seriousness I am aiming for to a media example, I would say the Captain America MCU movies -- not a jokey as Ant Man or whatever, with a strong throughline of melodrama and sort of seriousness.
I used to prefer a more serious approach due to the group. We joked, of course, but our 20 year campaign was definitely more emotionally grounded with more serious in-world social and political issues. in that campaign, there were real tears on a couple of occasions due to PC or NPC deaths or other major campaign events. Part of me would love to find that again, but I just don't think I will ever have that kind of group again, or the circumstances that allowed it to develop.
I run games at cons a lot and when i do that I try and find a balance. I want everyone to take the game seriously, even while having fun, so generally tone down the banter and OOC jokes. But every con table is different and ultimately the composition of the players will determine where that table sits on the humor vs seriousness scale.
However, we have not been having any Monty Python moments yet. I think the humor I have seen on display in-character is more like the humor seen in the Critical Role series. 
