A sudden thought

Back in auto school, in one of our blocks we had a room full of engines on run stands, the teacher would pull distributor and wires and set it back right on top of the engine, and gave the engine a twist with the key. We were to find top dead center and then install the distributor and wires and then twist the distributor to have fire to the number one sparkplug. I told my partner to ground the plug, which he did using his body as an extension....he yelped, I tightened distributor and the motor started right up, we both passed.