satire certainly seems to be lost on a lot of americans, for example the recent video of stephen colbert doing a public access tv show in which he interviews eminem (basically an american alan partridge knowing me, knowing you) - I've seen so many people think it is 100% serious.
video here :
https://youtu.be/rVPlMM_aSn4?t=1315 (it is very funny but again it is 'different' from alan partridge in the way the US 'the office' is different from the UK version)
I think you are right in saying that some things in the US are just so ludicrous from a british perspective that they already seem like satire or comedy.
I have hesitated to bring this up since it's a sensitive subject but this particular clip of brass eye,
https://youtu.be/NAQy8v0d_qo - I have shown it to americans who thought it was real and factual - but is telling that shortly after the massacre in Charleston, the NRA was suggesting it could have been prevented if priests were armed with guns.
Brass eye was as much a cultural critique as it was comedy, like Jonathon Meades programmes perhaps but with a sense of humour. I don't think this kind of introspective analysis has much space in america where so many are convinced they live in the worlds greatest country with the worlds greatest culture and are too busy criticising other nations (politically and with force) to look too closely at their own failings and absurdity.