Things cut from the episode (off the top of my head)
As you can tell, a LOT was trimmed, and, well, a LOT happened. Things I remember from this afternoon that didn’t make the cut:
-Towards the end of the opening monologue, the screens behind Stephen and his desk started doing some kind of glitching animation, and then the one behind the desk had a visual of some kind of magical green spinning portal thing. He looked quite confused, then told the audience that they’d fucked up (his words), and they took the part of the monologue he’d been on from the top. The glitchy visuals and green spiral thing never showed up again, so maybe it’s something for the finale?
-Stephen had more memories of his first concert, specifically of his mom being bored during the concert and their seats were super far up.
-Stephen and Jeff Daniels reminisced about one of their first interviews together, and they both put their feet up on the desk as they remembered.
-Stephen and Martha had a discussion about their favorite kinds of apples.
-Stephen and Aubrey got into a wild deep dive on whether Stephen would rather have sex with a cat or a dog, to which Stephen chose a cat (specifying it had to be human sized). Then she asked which he’d rather wake up to singing, to which he also chose a cat. Then he asked how far along Aubrey was in her pregnancy, which she wouldn’t answer, and he remarked that he’d just revealed he’d have sex with a cat so Aubrey should be able to answer his question. Then she pretended to go into labor. Tiffany was referenced, so she ran out to “help” as Aubrey sorta spread her legs out with Stephen bracing her back.
-Ben Stiller referenced the Knicks more and encouraged the audience to cheer for them as he exited.
-James Taylor remarked how he and Stephen will have more time to go fishing together.
-Stephen brought all the guests out for a group photo, and then as they all faced him, he gave a lovely speech thanking them for their support (and patience with him) over the years.
-After the main filming ended, Stephen came back out and sat on his desk to thank the audience as a spotlight shone on him. Hauntingly, the black and white American flag from Bruce’s performance was still on the screen behind him as he spoke. I really hope that gets posted, it was a striking image.
-After Stephen exited, the audience wouldn’t stop cheering, so he came back out and gave another lovely speech thanking his entire crew, and the audience again.
There’s definitely a lot more, it was a long couple hours or so of nonstop, surprises, and excitement, but that’s what I remember for now!