There has been a trend in Shadowrun since Nigel Findley died that this game is Serious Business. It seems to coincide with the same period in comics from what I understand. However, there is a sense of humor and absurdity that he brought to the game that hasn’t been seen since (this was also about the time Tom Dowd left as the first line developer). There is a sense of the absurd that I think is lost in part to the passing of time. The ridiculous trid shows in Shadowbeat have mostly come to pass. The semi-joking tone of the recruitment insert in the Lone Star sourcebook includes reasons for joining that include wearing cool mirror shades and leather uniforms, plus having unlimited donuts and free reign to beat suspects. This isn’t far from recruiting ads I’ve seen for police forces or the damn CIA that emphasize how badass you will get to be. Even the ubiquitous Navy ads feature the SEALs, who make up less than 1% of the branch, but they make for great b-roll video in a commercial with a rock beat and a powerful narrative voice.
But there is so much of the last fifteen years that was trying to be realistic and serious, and emphasizing minutiae details and research at the expense of recognizing this is a game. Shadowtech had quotes from a Senate hearing that were for comedic effect in making a Superman reference.
I think Cyberpirates! had some exception to this problem just by the very nature of Gingerbread Man and the pirates of the Caribbean and how they operate. It also creates an amusing as Hell bit as Gingerbread and Kane snipe at each other. But I also know that it delves deeply into the realm of Serious Business, and this was after it was toned way down from the authors’ intent.
This game could give good old King Jack Kirby himself a run for his money any day when it comes to high concept ideas. So let's not pretend James Bond is beyond the pale. This is a game where an AI took over a cubic kilometer pyramid in downtown Seattle for 16 months to experiment to death on 90,000 of the 100,000 inhabitants in order to draw its creator out from hiding so it could download itself into 1,000 peoples' brains and then re-upload itself to be a free-floating Matrix-dwelling AI during the IPO for one of the biggest corps in history until its "birth mother" fought it to the death as a Norse apocalypse cult teamed with a sociopathic computer-brain hacker blew up the Matrix and set off a nuclear weapon above the server farm as part of a plot to bring about Ragnarök/recreate the Matrix in her image.
That's canon. And that's one of the most hardcore adventures/campaigns and storylines I think has ever been published for SR (Well, Renraku Arcology: Shutdown, Brainscan, and the Deus stuff in System Failure. As a whole that book is hit and miss, but it does not lack for vision). It's one part of a vast tapestry of ideas that are ultimately up to the players to actually set the tone according to their own whims.
If we do our job right, any type of story is possible. Any genre. Any theme. And to be fair to the last 20 years of authors of SR, who've I've given no end of shit to when I was young and stupid, they made a relatively sane game with batshit crazy elements. But now there are rules for some of the wackier stuff. And that's awesome. Because to paraphrase Predator: If there are rules for it, it can die.
Remember, Rule Zero for every group should be Have Fun.
Shadowrun is Awesome Town, population: You.
Besides, it's just a game. If you don't like it, ignore it or change it. No one's putting a gun to your head and making you use technomancer critter swarms and kitteh protosapients (I just don't like using contemporary names for stuff).
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