In the contemporary era, social media platforms have become significant arenas for representing and critiquing political phenomena. Political satire, as a component of online culture, serves as a tool for criticizing power, circumventing censorship, and reflecting public concerns. This study aims to examine the functions of political satire in Iran’s digital sphere by conducting a qualitative content analysis of satirical materials published on Twitter and Telegram. The data were collected from humorous posts related to three issues: negotiations with the United States, the energy imbalance crisis, and the hijab policy. The materials were analyzed using thematic analysis and text-mining techniques. Findings reveal that satire, through the use of metaphor, irony, exaggeration, and parody, fulfills functions such as criticizing authority, raising awareness, alleviating psychological pressure, and enabling soft resistance. In the political domain, themes such as the futility and performative nature of negotiations were prominent. In the economic domain, managerial inefficiency, unconventional policy solutions, and the gap between promises and practice were satirized. In the social domain, excessive regulation, implementation inconsistencies, and the commercialization of the hijab issue were most salient. Comparative analysis showed that social and economic satire tends to be more explicit than political satire, since citizens’ experiences in these spheres are more immediate. Moreover, Twitter satire, due to textual limitations, is more concise and characterized by brevity and wordplay, while Telegram satire allows for more extended forms of narration. Ultimately, satire in Iran’s social media extends beyond entertainment, functioning as a tool for shaping public opinion, interpreting crises, and articulating dissent in indirect forms.