Never underestimate stupidity. Though I do think it’s at least not normally people trying to connect two strands that are themselves already live. It’s normally people who are connecting several strands together and started at the end not plugged in with the male end poking out, not realizing that this means when they’re done stringing and go to plug in they’ve got the female end and no way to plug it in.

Left facing the daunting task of completely undoing all the work they just did, they try to look for something to bridge the gap without thinking through to the danger.