Q: I'd like to submit a humor piece to a magazine. Do I pitch it first or just send it in as is?

A: Based on my experience, my instinct would be to just send it in as-is, because even the funniest piece is unfunny when it's explained. But I asked a few experts.

"Send the whole damn piece," says mb humor writing teacher Lynn Harris. "I mean, if it's pure humor, as opposed to a regular ol' reported piece or essay that will HAVE humor IN it. Otherwise, the least funny thing in the world is a pitch trying to explain how funny an article will be."

"I think it comes down to how well you know the editor and what they most prefer," says Mike Sacks, who has published humor in Esquire and the New Yorker. "If you've written before for the magazine, you may be able to get away with submitting just ideas, with a few examples for each idea. This would mostly hold true for visual ideas, say for MAD or back-page Esquire. But I think most editors prefer seeing the whole piece, especially if you're an unknown commodity. Then again, I don't know what the hell I'm talking about."

That's not totally true.