I don’t know about this case, but in general, yes, since as you said the concept covers everything from static shocks to a bolt of lightning. As always with electricity though, you can get profoundly lucky, or unlucky depending on a large number of factors.
A large VDG such as those in some science museums for example, could cook your noodle.
On the one hand, this is theoretically true, but, on the other hand, as a person's electrical potential increases (or voltage, for lack of a better term), so does the range of space that the voltage will jump and ultimately dissipate to. The jumping is not the problem -- it's what it's jumping to. Metal or Grounded metal (especially if there's a lot of it) would be the worst thing, but what if instead of grounded metal you had a material with enough resistance to safely dissipate the energy, like some kind of carbon/plastic thingy? Also, you might ask why regular static electricity doesn't kill anyone. You'll get a static shock if you're charged high enough and touch metal, but other items -- you won't get any shock. But what's really happening there? Aren't they acting as resistors but with some dissipation value?
Anyway, we need a greater understanding of this phenomena...
People doing electronics cover their tables with medium-high resistivity material mats (high enough so it doesn't interfere with bare electronics, but not completely dielectric). The mats are grounded to Earth ground via 1 megaohm resistor.
From personal experience, static discharge against such material is a lot less painful than touching grounded metal objects.
> An Australian man built up a 40,000-volt charge of static electricity in his clothes as he walked, leaving a trail of scorched carpet and molten plastic and forcing firefighters to evacuate a building.
Without meaning to, and without any of that I still managed to destroy a set of dimmer switches with a static shock from my finger, in winter. Boy did I feel stupid.
