Or, he could have said:

A butterfly flapped its wings in Australia at exactly the same time as the chief robot flicked the on switch.

This in turn caused an anomaly in the worlds eco system, which sent unseen electrical signals across half the planet, to interfere with the electrical load, of the switch, said chief robot had flicked.

The red faced chief robot hailed it as a success, and later instructed his sycophantic minions to say it was the butterflies fault.

The red faced chief robot was particualarly upset, because he was told by one of his sycophantic minions that his shiny nanobot facial skin, designed specifically to mimic human skin, could not change colour when he was confused.

This skin had been designed after the chief robot had heard the song "Venus in Furs" by The Velvet Underground. He was intrigued and encouraged by the line in the lyrics;

Shiny, shiny, shiny boots of leather, and decided he wanted his face to be exactly like that.

the minions set to work