-Yes, but only a little humor
Generally speaking, I agree with the OP - darker, gloomier, more serious content would be much preferred. I've always thought TES was blessed with a wonderful setting, and a little let down by its quirkiness, a large part of which is its sense of humour. I mean, Morrowind is an incredibly camp game. I've always wanted to see an Elder Scrolls game with a tone, atmosphere and maturity to match much of its lore, which despite the occasional bit of silliness, is pretty heavy stuff. The lore's full of ambiguity, complex abstracts, horror, intrigue, six and violence; the games themselves are often quite stupid (and I mean that in the fondest possible way) in comparison.

I realise a game has to appeal to a lot more people than its lore does -- and that as a medium it lends itself less to dark subject matter than literature -- but with a lot of fantasy, I can't help but feel that quirkiness and comedy is merely compensating for something; the inability of its writers to capture "dark" well, perhaps. It feels like an excuse to me, a cop out. Nor have previous TES games' NPC AI, character models, and voice acting helped to express the dark and monstrous heart that beats like a vast and ominous drum beneath its deceptive exterior of silly anecdotes and camp, whiny, flamboyant characters.

So I want a much darker, meaner-looking and meaner-sounding Skyrim, and I hope the series continues in that direction. But some lighter-hearted moments are probably necessary.