"It's the Volts that jolts, but the Mils that kills"
Prewar TVs used a separate mains power supply for the EHT to the tube. VERY dangerous! I have had the odd belt from a CRT, but since these used flyback EHT, very little energy was available. (Ditto for OLD coil ignition systems on engines, BUT beware of the more modern ones. They do pack a dangerous punch).
The current available is driven by the voltage and resistance into which it is delivered, and by the power output of the supply. The TV was low power, but the same can't be said of a 400Mw Power station which ultimately feeds the mains. I have survived a 240 volt shock, fortunately standing on a 5Kv proof floor! If it had been a puddle, you might not have been bored by reading this.
In the Electronics and Vibration Lab we used to check our body resistance, every Monday with the AVO 7. If we were under the weather, with say, a cold, we read 120K instead of 140 – 150Kohms
A 12 volt car battery will not kill you, (Your body resistance of over 100K Ohms is high enough to limit the current to less than 1 MilliAmp), but WILL burn hole through a screwdriver, or lumps out of a spanner, because it can deliver 300 – 400 Amps when short circuited!
Treat Capacitors with similar respect. They can hold a high voltage charge for some time, and deliver, for a short time, a high current. Those Coulombs (Amps x Milliseconds) can be enough to kill!
An electronic flash for a camera can deliver 100 watt seconds of energy, in 1/1000 of second. The tube needs 500 volts to strike.so the current is about 200 MilliAmps, delivered in 1 Millisecond, or less. 200 Coulombs is LOT of energy into a human body. At worst, lethal, but if survivable certainly VERY unpleasant, and definitely non preferred.
Preferably, discharge the Capacitor with a high value resistor, say 1 Mohm, or more, to minimise the current, and as advised, wear rubber gloves and use insulated tools, in a dry location.
H T H
Howard