So I’m Dr. Tucker. I have been at Elon since 2000. I teach Fine Arts, which at Elon means the humanities. I grew up in Virginia, and when I finished high school I spent two years as a Mormon missionary in Chile. I got my BA in humanities at Brigham Young University and my PhD in humanities at Florida State University. I love being at Elon. My research deals with laughter, including laughter in the classroom, as well as pride and humility. Here is my work of “art” that makes me laugh–a poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfwJlNKcqUU I like this poem because poetry always risks sounding ridiculous, absurd, and sappy. I like how the poem catches that conflict. I also like the clever comparisons. Poetic units are in “feet,” and so the poet performs “sleight-of-foot tricks” instead of sleight of hand tricks. I also like the way the Beauty is described as leaping toward the poet who may or may not catch her. Here’s another work of art that makes me laugh–a song by Tripod: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSqFqhUzutg I like this song because of how it sets up expectations and then undercuts them. It sounds like a really romantic encounter, but the guy is more interested in video games, like when she is dancing for him. Another example is how he wants the lights low, not for romantic reasons but to enjoy his game more.
