The Satire of "Atlanta"

One of the most popular comedies on network television right now is the FX series, "Atlanta". Atlanta is a show based around a group of three young men from Atlanta, trying to gain money and success through a gritty rapper named Paperboi. However, the shows is less about an actual rapper, and a more so a representation of what it is like to be black in America, just through the lens of a rapper. The show uses very small awkward interactions, mostly with micro-aggressions, to portray the experiences people have to deal with today. Atlanta contains a lot of irony and satire through its episodes, and the one I will be focusing on is entitled B.A.N.

B.A.N. is a parody sketch that Atlanta did following Paperboi going on a talk show to discuss his views on transgender people, much to his demise, because the host kept going at him and painting him to be a villain while making assumptions about him, saying that he "hates women". However, this is not the most important satire that happened in the episode. There are two ways "Atlanta" used satire so well in that episode, and it was through the commercials. In the episode, FX allowed "Atlanta" to make its own parody commercials, rather than letting the normal network commercials run, and those commercials were very important. One of the commercials was advertising Dodge, the car company. It portrayed a man driving around the city getting looks of awe from the passing pedestrians, and the slogan was "Dodge, make a statement without saying anything at all", but the part that was funny about it was when the driver of the Dodge had to stop to get gas. The commercial cut to a man saying that the driver had been cruising around the city for 2 weeks straight without exiting the vehicle, he would only stop to get gas. Then the camera cut to the driver in a frenzy filling up gas, because he didn't have any pants on. This is a hilarious form of satire showing that people will put all their time and money into investing in material products that don't really mean anything to them, just for reputation and acceptance, all while portraying a car commercial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS95Kcnhk7U

The second form of satire in this episode is another parody commercial involving a made up kids cereal. It was set in a cartoon format, mimicking Cocoa Puffs, where the crazy bird is trying to steal the cereal from the children. But in this one, they used a dog with a stereotypical African American male accent, trying to get the cereal from 3 African American children. The commercial starts of light-hearted and child friendly, but it takes a turn for the worse. The dog is about to get the cereal from a kid, until a police officer attacks him, and uses brute force to retrain him, telling him to "stop resisting" and pushing his knee into his neck, showing the police brutality that takes place in today's society. One of the children takes out his phone and begins filming the whole thing, while the other kids sit back in awe. While the dog is being restrained he is pleading to the officer saying "Man, I could be eating these kids, I'm just trying to get some goddamn cereal", and one of the kids follows up with, "Yeah man it's just cereal, he can have it", then the officer threatens the kids and makes them leave the situation as the commercial cuts away. This is an extremely powerful use of satire. One of them of course is the parody they used, setting it as a kids cereal commercial, but then they utilize dramatic irony, putting such adult ideas and serious, heavy topics where a light-hearted kids commercial is supposed to be taking place. The satire also says a lot about our society today. When the dog said he could be eating the kids, but he just wants some cereal, it shows how police will racially profile people for doing nothing serious, showing that people out there are doing way worse things, but police are using brute force on African Americans for something as silly as cereal. The fact that one of the kids took out his phones is also very telling of society today. We are now in a technology era, where everything is being recorded, and it is almost an allusion to how most of these interactions go down now. "Atlanta" is able to use satire in genius and powerful ways to portray important topics in today' society.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUKSGJcYwMM