Satire exists as a subgenre of comedy and has, from its beginnings in ancient literary traditions of Rome and Greece, served as a voice of the populace to express its dissatisfaction with dominant ideologies, norms, public hypocrisy, faulty human behavior, etc. Some satires aim to provide a corrective point for society and are more direct, while others tend to provide food for thought which may inspire change. While the Roman tradition produced Juvenalian and Horatian satire, the Greek tradition produced Menippean satire. Juvenalian is an authoritarian, corrective form of satire, often dark and pessimistic. On the other hand, Horatian satire is more subtle in its manner, using irony to deliver its satirical purpose. The Greek tradition of Menippean satire produced a wide scope of satirical characters still used today: fools, braggers, imposters, etc. The exposing rather than corrective style of Menippean satire is one which is most relevant for contemporary satire. Satire is a complex art form, which transferred itself from literary traditions to new media outlets such as television. However, it demands a shared discourse between the satirist and its audience, otherwise it fails to inspire societal change. In this paper, the focus of analysis is American satire, with a special attention paid to African American satire. The development of American satire was inspired by its colonial and post-colonial settings. In the postmodern period, it is characterized by TV productions which tackle dominant societal issues relating to class, gender, race, etc. What is most prominent in contemporary production of satire is the fact that popular TV satires tend to become forms of public pedagogy, that is, they teach their viewers to question what they consume and contribute to shaping and reforming societal values. While both American and African American satire share certain stylistic characteristics, as all satire does, they nevertheless differ according to specific cultural discourses they arise from. The relationship between African American identity and American power structures has always been that of violence and oppression. As such, it pushed African American identity narratives out of the mainstream and to the cultural margins from which their satirical expression emerged. Such satire arises within a culture which boasts with its democratic philosophy, while simultaneously failing to recognize the validity and humanism of African American identity. This greatly influenced African American satire, which, in the exact sense of the word, emerged in the African American satirical novel of the 20th century. It is characterized by the extensive use of irony, forcing ideas and concepts to the extreme to reveal their absurdity, and the practice of signifying. In his book African American Satire - The Sacredly Profane Novel, Darryl Dickson-Carr states that, while analyzing African American satire, it is better not to focus on the corrective points of it, but to ask in what way it challenges us to think. He continues by saying that the objects of such satire are specific forms of American racism and the trends of Afro-American social, political, and cultural status (16-17). These characteristics are present in literature as well as new media production, one of which is Donald Glover’s series Atlanta. It first aired in 2016, and tackles questions of race, class, and gender as it is experienced in the city of Atlanta, Georgia. Through the story about three young men trying to make it in the hip-hop industry, it depicts a city in which racism, cultural appropriation and self-deprecation emerge in a setting which is far from the stereotypical portrayal of Black experience connected with poverty and crime. This is not to say that class struggles are not represented in the series, but that they are just a part of a thought provoking, multi-dimensional lived experience. The satire presented in the series relies on ironic debunking, with a range of absurd characters which help to maintain the comedy aspect of this comedy/drama series.