I didn't notice that yet, though it's kind of amusing when the bard's lute in one of the early villages sounds like an electric guitar (he's singing part of the song that's later featured in the in-game concert).
I did find them amusing for a good long while! Eventually the "light metal" started to grate a little, though fortunately they're not too hard to disable (though I now forget the exact means of doing so).
The kobolds are indeed quite amusing, even if they do make me think more of psychotic garden gnomes. Talking of which, they'll never seem the same again after Fable 3's rather unpleasant gnomes; or the gnome that unexpectedly starts talking to you in New Vegas...
It's too long since I've played, but I recall that there's a lot of humour and somewhat offhand cultural references in Sacred 2.