I think the rationalization that games can't be "stupid" like Saints Row because they somehow haven't matured enough yet is both contradictory and insecure. Kinda references the whole idea that the games industry is heavily pandering itself to every other form of established media and every medium questing for legitimacy, approval, or at least a pat on the head. Maybe so the people in the industry can feel better? I don't know.
Games exist, they are already a medium and a media. Every media has stuff like Saints Row, and the joke is that Saints Row is executed with more actual taste, refinement, and thoughtfulness in its humor than what would typically be thought of as "trash humor".
Also incredibly hypocritical to pick on something like Saints Row in an industry built on serving Americans their daily dose of the old ultraviolence and curb stomps. It really is true that America is f**ked in the head - sex and sexual references are forbidden and shameful, and "immature", while gore and violence have no limits. Shit's even called torture porn at the extreme - clearly, porn is OK once you make it about gore!
If anything, Saints Row seems to be popular in part because it's a reaction to games taking themselves with incredible seriousness and trying too hard to win an oscar. It stands out precisely because it isn't more of the same. Why it's even funnier than CliffyB's advise is to make Saints Row just like every other generic, tryhard cop and gangster clone title.