>>96226553
Playing it straight is best imo.
Yes, people die. Sometimes they fade away peacefully, surrounded by their family.
Sometimes they die alone in a ditch in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, with naught to mark their grave but their own sun-bleached bones.
And sometimes they die in a horrible painful way, filled with terror 'till their last moment.
…but they get used to that. They're kobolds, tiny silly lizard people that are just about the weakest race there is.
Still, they try their best and, be it though courage, cunning, or sheer willpower, they sometimes prevail.
Not everyone that ventures out of the burrows will return, but each and every one will always be remembered by their tribe as a hero that bravely stepped into the dangerous world outside.

Simply put, you want lots, and I mean LOTS of gallows humor and black comedy. Humor and making light of death and dying, despite knowing of it's inevitability, is how people live in this shithole world without losing their fucking minds, despite having every reason to.
Humor, sometimes dark, sometimes low-brow slapstick. And sometimes serious philosophical stuff that shows they're keenly aware of how many of their brethren don't make it, but the solace they find in jokes and ancestor worship gives them the strength of will to soldier on.
High mortality means temp names for hatchlings, plus family/clan names. Those that take up the names of the deceased intend to pick up the torch and finish what the name's previous owner started.

All of this doesn't preclude silly shit, it's just that it will be deeper than just cruel and unusual treatment of kobolds for a cheap giggle.