Yes, it is! But I don't recall which episode. I just remember the professor used some kind of "memory ray" so he could describe it exactly for the purposes of the flashback. Best guess as to the plot was he was flashing back to working at Mom's Friendly Robots, so hopefully that narrows it down if you're looking for the specific episode.

[–] toynbee@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

Only in the pursuit of recognizing your reference.

IIRC, the Professor put the gun to his head, implying impending more drastic actions; Leela shouted something like "Professor, don't!" and he responded "don't what, use my memory ray to accurately recall the story?" Followed by the quote you paraphrased. I think it was in one of the episodes mentioning how he was responsible for the invention of robots.

Thanks for confirming the reference!