In reality, if there was a shock risk, it would have been evident the moment he plugged in the electrical cord. The easiest path to complete the circuit would be the ‘neutral’ or ground that is the other conductor in the electrical cord. It would blow the circuit immediately. Humans have a dry-body resistance of ~25,000 Ohms from finger tip to finger tip and, at 120VAC (~93 Volts RMS), you’re only looking at something on the order of 3.7 milliamps. You’d feel it but not suffer any damage. Now, if he only had the one HOT conductor in the punch bowl, there’s lots of ions in the solution and the participants are well grounded, that’s a different story…
In reality, if there was a shock risk, it would have been evident the moment he plugged in the electrical cord. The easiest path to complete the circuit would be the ‘neutral’ or ground that is the other conductor in the electrical cord. It would blow the circuit immediately. Humans have a dry-body resistance of ~25,000 Ohms from finger tip to finger tip and, at 120VAC (~93 Volts RMS), you’re only looking at something on the order of 3.7 milliamps. You’d feel it but not suffer any damage. Now, if he only had the one HOT conductor in the punch bowl, there’s lots of ions in the solution and the participants are well grounded, that’s a different story…