I'll try to keep this as "family appropriate" as possible...

Electric will head towards an earth ground before anything else. You are just giving it a path of least resistance, being that copper wire is a good conductor. I seen the after effects of a bolt of lightning coming in a power outlet in a guys living room and shooting across the room(thru the couch) and exiting out another power outlet. Sure trashed the electric lines in that house.
That's why lightning will hit a tree, it's well grounded and very wet inside from the sap, and very tall.

run it under the suction cup... That's how they teach it in school.

The voltage does not stay hidden under the suction cup but in the can capacitors mounted on the circuit board. There is a video on YouTube that shows 4 or 5 can capacitors piggybacked together and supplied with voltage. When they flip a switch the can caps' will smash an aluminum can with the voltage surge, it's cool.