self-righteous

“I know James isn’t going to take the impression in a more self-righteous or shrill direction,” he says—not because “SNL” is playing things safe, but because the bit simply wouldn’t be as funny.

“When I made movies,” he said, “one of the things that kept me from being too self-righteous is my memory of the Japanese kids who were in my class one day, then gone the next.”

Also: He isn’t self-righteous, which he views as “the ultimate sin of political correctness.”

We remember them as they actually are because we grew up among them: bitter, mean, and self-righteous.

More than this, it redeems Daniel too, highlighting his transformation from a self-righteous know-it-all into a man who makes peace with some mysteries and finds balance with the man he once tolerated.