Thomas Hobbes on the Superiority Theory

Thomas Hobbes, nearly two millenia after Plato and Aristotle's lives, carries on the discussion of the Superiority Theory concerning laughter. Agreeing with the established terms, Hobbes merely strengthens its authority. He explains that men laugh at the recognition of their own abilities. In his own words, "laughter without offense, must be at absurdities and infirmities abstracted from persons, and when all the company may laugh together: for laughing to one's self puts all the rest into jealousy and examination of themselves." (Hobbes, from Human Nature, as provided in Philosophy of Laughter, above cited) While I can understand the situation that Hobbes describes, for I can picture the Lindsy Lohan flick Mean Girls as an example of the harsh laughter of judgment, I must also add that true laughter must derive from countless other sources. Laughter, Hobbes himself coins as "always joy," so must this Superiority Theory be true of all people, or just the inwardly "distorted" and the self-conscious? As I read his words, I wonder if Hobbes ever spent his highly academic life with children. Children laugh, and I do not think they even understand others' infirmities. They also produce laughter; laughter which I believe to be of the purest form. I have a two-year old nephew who constantly causes me to laugh, quite often to the point of tears, and usually this laughter is caused by the things he does so well. His cleverness surprises me when, rather than acknowledging his mother threatening to leave the picnic and go home if he doesn't eat his sandwich, he turns to me and compliments me on my hair. Now, Thomas Hobbes, explain to me how this laughter could be "nothing else but sudden glory arising from some sudden conception of some eminency in ourselves, by comparison with the infirmity of others."