Buckets on a 6th floor balcony turn into sails, Rosa's just lucky hers haven't gone over yet.

Preheating with the basket out does help some foods, sure, but for most stuff it's kind of overkill. The extra 3 minutes just dry out the air fryer's interior and waste energy when the food needs that time to cook anyway. Plus, throwing cold food into a hot basket seems to make the outside cook faster than the middle, which is annoying for bigger pieces.

My cousin's kid does the exact same thing and I finally figured out why. He grew up watching those short meme videos where the punchline is just the punchline, no setup, so he thinks the surprise IS the whole joke. But in real storytelling, the setup is like the promise you make to the listener. You're saying "stick with me, this will be worth it." When you skip the punchline, you break that promise and the listener feels tricked, not amused. Last month I timed it out, my best jokes have about 20 seconds of setup for every 5 seconds of payoff. Your brother in law probably thinks he's being clever by being minimalist, but he's actually just skipping the hardest part, which is earning the laugh.