I’m beginning to write my MA thesis by analyzing the first season episode of BSG titled “Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down.” This is the only comedic episode of the series, which I think adds to the ways in which identity construction and fear of enemy infiltration is approached in general by BSG. As Patricia Mellencamp writes in her book, High Anxiety: Catastrophe, Scandal, Age, and Comedy, “The similarity between comedy and catastrophe is a fascinating one, suggesting a relationship between laughter and shock” (84). This episode of BSG engages both of these issues by presenting a comedy on top of the catastrophic backdrop of the near-annihilation of humanity.
