Ok but for real, that wouldn’t work, right? How would them holding it complete the circuit? The circuit is just gonna be from one screw to the top of the pole back through another screw, not the part the person is holding.

For someone to get electrocuted, the current needs to flow through their body. Electricity always follows the path of least resistance, so there’s basically no way to do that from upstairs.

If you attach both terminals of the battery (or a stripped extension wire) that wouldn’t do it. Assuming the pole is conductive, the electricity would just go into the screws, into the pole, across to the other screw and out. If the pole isn’t conductive it would probably do nothing at all. Maybe the floor is conductive, in which case it would go into the screw, through the floor/ceiling and out the other screw. There’s just no way to do it where the electricity flows from a screw, down the pole, into the body of the pole dancer, then somehow back out and up to the battery.

Even if the person who owned the stripper pole wanted to electrocute themselves it would be difficult. Assuming the pole is conductive, if you attached one electrode near the ceiling and one near the floor, the electricity would just flow through the pole. It wouldn’t make a detour to go through the body of the pole dancer. You’d basically have to clip one side of the battery to your toe, the other side to the stripper pole, and then grab the pole with your hands. And, even then, it might not do it – you’d have to have sweaty hands and toes to make the path through your body conductive.

I really hate the movie trope where people can get electrocuted by stepping into a puddle that has something electricity-related in it. It’s almost as bad as the trope that you get blasted backwards if you’re hit by a bullet / shotgun blast.

so there’s basically no way to do that from upstairs.

Incorrect.

stripper poles are tubes and spin on bearings. follow these instructions and you can most certainly electrocute someone with one.

drill a hole in the center of the floor that feeds directly into the “tube” of the pole.

strip 2-3 feet of a solid core copper wire(10-3) to bare copper and kink it into a zig-zag shape that gives it enough width to touch the pole inside.

feed the wire down into the tube until it stops

connect that wire to common

connect the bolts to live

turn the lights on when you hear them on the pole

zap!

• make sure you’re using a 30amp breaker and switch
• prepare your butthole for the cops when they show up
• accept you probably just killed a person. two stupids don’t make a less stupid.

What makes you think that will work? That sounds like a very complicated way of just connecting the common to live with no human in the loop.

Ikr, this at least makes the pole get hot because current is actually running through part of it.
But at no point is a human part of the path of least resistance for the electricity.