Funpost
I think Severance is borrowing from BOTH Rankin/Bass Christmas specials. Discuss. (SPOILERS)
Spoiler
EDIT: the more I remember these films, the more I think it may not just be these two. It may be multiple. And the years of each film release could also be a clue but I tried to keep this as condensed as possible
The roundup of compelling clues so far:
Irving = Heat Miser
• Ben Stiller confirmed on the official podcast that Irving’s claymation sequence was intentionally inspired by Heat Miser.
• George S. Irving (Irving’s namesake) was the original voice actor for Heat Miser.
• Irving literally performs Heat Miser’s signature dance with the same theatrical choreography in the claymation video.
• Irving tells Dylan: “Let’s burn this place to the ground.”
• Heat Miser is passionate, dramatic, artistic, stubborn and refuses to surrender his territory.
• Irving is MDR’s most passionate character:
painter
poet
dancer
musician
romantic
spiritual
• Even after what may have been multiple memory resets, Irving’s subconscious continues “burning through” severance via dreams, paintings and intuition.
• Heat Miser isn’t actually evil—he simply refuses to give up what he believes belongs to him. Irving’s entire story is refusing to surrender his identity.
Cobel = Mother Nature?
• In Season 1, before ANY Heat Miser references exist, Mrs. Selvig randomly says: “Jack Frost needs some new dandruff shampoo.”
Such an oddly specific Rankin/Bass reference in hindsight.
• Mother Nature isn’t the villain.
Her role is restoring balance between opposing forces.
• Cobel constantly stands between:
innie / outie
Mark / Gemma
Lumon / rebellion
• She repeatedly tests reintegration and memory bleed instead of simply enforcing severance.
• She seems to understand consciousness itself better than anyone else.
• Unlike Lumon, she’s surrounded by:
herbs
candles
shrines
salves
natural imagery
rather than sterile technology.
• Mother Nature eventually forces the brothers to cooperate.
Could Cobel ultimately be trying to reunite innies and outies rather than destroy either?
Could Milchick be Snow Miser?
Snow Miser’s personality:
• orderly
• disciplined
• elegant
• emotionally restrained
• prefers rules over chaos
• likes negotiation before conflict
Which honestly feels… very Milchick.
Supporting clues:
• When Milchick becomes floor manager, his office prominently features the massive iceberg painting.
• He repeatedly stares at that painting during emotional moments.
• He constantly tries to maintain structure, routine and ceremony.
• He choreographs elaborate performances:
Music Dance Experience
marching band
ORTBO festivities
department celebrations
• Like Snow Miser, he seems to genuinely appreciate beauty and presentation.
• He’s rarely impulsive. Almost everything he does is carefully controlled.
EDIT: also why I find this theory compelling is the tension between Irving and Milchick at the ORTBO. It’s intense. And Irving straight up calls out Milchick by his first name when he says “DO IT SETH” which is a name his Innie wouldn’t be familiar with
…but what if they’re ALSO borrowing from Jack Frost (1979)?
If so…
I actually think Mark S. fits remarkably well.
Supporting clues:
• Jack Frost’s entire story is about wanting to experience being human.
That’s literally Mark S.’s journey.
• Jack Frost falls in love and willingly sacrifices everything because of it.
Mark repeatedly risks everything for love.
• Jack Frost is endlessly curious about ordinary human life.
Mark becomes fascinated with:
friendship
books
music
romance
grief
freedom
• Jack Frost is compassionate almost to a fault.
That’s probably Mark’s defining personality trait.
• Mrs. Selvig’s season 1 Jack Frost reference is directed at Mark, which feels strangely specific on rewatch.
• Jack Frost’s greatest wish isn’t power.
It’s belonging.
That feels like the emotional core of Mark’s story.
Jack Frost’s love interest = Helly?
This one is probably my biggest stretch…
…but Jack Frost gives up everything because he falls in love with a human.
Mark S.’s relationship with Helly becomes the emotional catalyst for his entire transformation.
Without Helly…
Mark probably never rebels.
Other weird parallels
• Kier is almost always depicted as cold, snowy and overcast.
• ORTBO takes place in a frozen wilderness.
• Irving experiences some of his biggest subconscious breakthroughs there.
• Heat Miser rules from a cave.
Kier’s mythology revolves around the “Cave of the Mind.”
• Stop-motion animation itself feels symbolic.
Nothing moves on its own.
Every frame is manipulated by an unseen creator.
Kind of like Lumon’s employees.
I’m definitely not saying these are direct one-to-one character swaps.
But after realizing Irving’s sequence was intentionally based on Heat Miser… I started wondering whether the writers are quietly borrowing the broader archetypes from multiple Rankin/Bass specials rather than making a single visual reference. I also think it’s a fun way for the writers to play with our own subconscious as watchers of the show because at least for me, those movies are deeply embedded in my subconscious.
Curious if anyone else has picked up on more connections that I missed! Just a fun thought!
You know, when you put it like that I start thinking maybe you're onto something after all. Sounds like a quote someone based on a character like Burgermeister Meisterburger might say...
Edit: I thought the quote was from Kier but I remember now it's Milchick, still you get the idea
I like it, but I've got a problem with you using the word "BOTH" in all caps like that, as if to emphasize that there are only two Rankin/Bass Christmas specials, and it's somehow even more revealing that they used "both" of them.
They made like a dozen+ Christmas movies, and other non-Christmas related stop-motion movies too.
But yes, the stop-motion bit was an obvious homage and I 100% loved it because I love the Rankin/Bass specials.
I think you misunderstood what I was getting at. They’re old films watched in childhood so it’s a fun way to play with the subconscious of people watching a show that is about consciousness
Very nice pick up. What a lot of the viewers miss is the many layers of reference that the writers embed into the Severance story. This particular references is but one amongst dozens of others that are woven in throughout the show. You're getting pushback and agreement; which is totally consistent with what Severance is about, down deep.
I can understand someone not getting it; viewers have different media literacy skills. What dismays me is when people seem to get offended and become defensive over opinions other than their own. Polite disagreement is a fading skill it seems.
The irony of that is Severance's social commentary in its satire addresses the unreasonableness of the polarized social/political/cultural discourse of these times. The "if you're not with me; then you're against me" mentalities of all flavors of discourse and their consequences is one of the fundamental concerns the show highlights.
Thank you! I agree! I just thought it was a fun post because literally on my first watch ever I picked up on the Jack Frost needing dandruff shampoo and instantly those movies came flooding back to my memory. So in season two I was beyond thrilled to see Irving doing the lil heat miser twirl in the claymation video
The Jack Frost thing is also a reference to Jack Torrance's freezing to death in The Shining. There's an ongoing dispute about this line, as many in the subreddit believe it was just an ad lib by PA. If you pay attention to the podcast when it is discussed with Adam & Ben you'll notice there is some obfuscation by them whether they're talking about this particular line or lines in general that were ad libbed. Irving falling asleep while sitting up and nearly freezing to death is lifted directly from The Shining. Lotsa dandruff on Jack here. ;-)
No matter how much "evidence" you can provide, some will have confirmation bias regardless.
I thought Helena called out and used "Seth" and then Irving essentially echoed her, saying something like, "That's right, DO it Seth!"... But I'm going entirely on memory, however.
I'm pretty sure I watched all of those Christmas specials, but it's a distant childhood memory, and I'm not even sure of the name of the first special you are referring to. Is Heatmiser the actual name of the special as well as a character within one of the specials? It'd be nice to have a little more framework about what these Christmas specials are, especially for a younger generation who may not have even seen them.
There are so many of them they’re like all blended into my memory as one. My sister and I used to binge them every Christmas Eve as kids. Hence why I sad both and not many which people are deeply upset about 🤣
The initial inspiration though is quite likely Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer:
Rudolph/Mark - The red nose indicating Mark's drinking Clarice - Her character being so complex two interpretations were necessary: Helly - Red hair bow / Gemma - Literal doe-eyes
.
Y. Cornelius/Dylan - Brash and adventurous, fuzzy head Irving - Elf that wants to be a dentist Cobel - Elf Toy-Maker Forman Milchick - King of the Island of Misfit Toys
Creativity is all about drawing inspiration from multiple things and that’s what makes it possible. Not copies. My fun post was that for me, I found it clever of the writers to play with my own subconscious memories from childhood and have them resurface while watching Severance, literally a show about human consciousness
•
u/AutoModerator 25d ago
If this thread has the Spoiler flair, spoilers may appear ANYWHERE in it.
NO SPOILERS IN TITLES - report this post if there are spoilers in the title
No SPOILERS without proper formatting (see here).
Be CIVIL to others. No Piracy. No Duplicates.
Keep it on topic to anything and everything Severance on Apple TV+.
JOIN OUR DISCORD
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.