This hilarious 'Severance' parody has a clever premise: Your outie makes you cringe

The crux of Severance, the dystopian black-comedy thriller streaming on Apple TV+, is the titular medical procedure, which "severs" the memories of one’s "innie" work self from their off-hours "outie." This essentially results in two different humans, each with potential for a unique personality. It’s not inconceivable that your innie could love jazz (perhaps even "Defiant Jazz") and your outie could only dig hair-metal. The possibilities are endless.

Seemingly branching out from there, content creator Jaden Williams wound up with a hilarious premise: What if your outie was super cringe? In an Instagram sketch titled "When You Realize Your Outie Sucks," he plays two characters: a tie-wearing innie with an initially chipper demeanor that recalls early season one Mark S. (Adam Scott), and a smooth-voiced wellness director reminiscent of Gemma "Ms. Casey" Scout (Dichen Lachman). Just like in the show, where "Ms. Casey" presents the innies with innocuous info about their outies—a way to satiate their curiosity about their other lives—Williams’ counselor character shares a series of simple facts. They just don’t go over well.

The first fact—"Your outie loves Nickelback"—earns a modest look of concern, but nothing too extreme. But the innie enters outright disbelief when learning, "Your outie has a 'Live, Laugh, Love' bumper sticker." From there, these statements touch on slang ("no cap," "I’m baby"), social media (calling the platform "X" instead of "Twitter," overusing LinkedIn), and political headlines ("Your outie says 'The Gulf of America'"). The innie becomes gradually more frazzled, eventually pleading to "stop" and noting, in a violation of company policy, that he "hate[s] each of these facts equally."

The sketch ends with a curveball: "Your outie is a software engineer," the innie learns, breathing a temporary sigh of relief. "But his full-time job is content creating." (Wow. If you’ll indulge me for a second: In the universe of this sketch, the innie presumably underwent the severance procedure to accept a job that required it. But his outie also works an additional full-time job, with more work on the side. That’s real hustle.)

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The actual Severance wrapped its second season in late March with "Cold Harbor," a universally acclaimed finale that offered a nuanced and mind-bending portrayal of old vs. new love. But it’s been captivating everyone’s collective imagination—and infiltrating broader culture—this entire run of episodes. On a darkly comedic tone befitting the world of the show itself, someone on LinkedIn shared some of the in-office perks of working at JPMorgan, and they do give off a Lumon Industries vibe.

On a more heartwarming note: Ben Stiller, the series’ primary director and executive producer, engaged with a hardcore fan who’s battling stage 4 cancer and reached out with a special request. "A great bucket list item to check off would be to meet you and any of the cast and crew from the show," the viewer wrote. "We can fly anywhere." Stiller responded on the same day, requesting a DM—and apparently initiating plans to meet up: "Look forward to meeting you xx," he wrote. The fan added that Stiller and the team had made their "wish come true."

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