Squeee!!! And the robot does have horror movie written all over it.

Kinda happened to me some years back. Substitute lightning for fluffy towel: I was about 40 feet or so away from a street light when it got zapped. Just before the hit, I felt what I thought was a gentle breeze around my head.... Someone who witnessed the incident later told me that may hair had stood straight out in a big puffball. (Hm. Maybe I better check YouTube....)