Considering that Everybody Loves Raymond aired for nine highly rated seasons and earned dozens and dozens of Emmy nominations, the average person might not call it a guilty pleasure. But the average college student would, since Raymond is the type of comedy that your mother (or grandmother) probably enjoys, and it’s not cool by any stretch of the imagination. Despite that, I’ll admit to watching Everybody Loves Raymond reruns because the show is such a good stress-reliever. It’s the television equivalent of a bowl of macaroni and cheese.

Raymond aired from 1996-2005, overlapping at times with the original runs of the decidedly cooler Friends and Seinfeld. But while these two comedies pushed the envelope, Raymond is a traditional series about a loving and somewhat dysfunctional family. The plot of most episodes goes something like this: Ray screws up, his wife Debra overreacts, his mother Marie interferes, and his father and brother make sarcastic remarks from the sidelines. Clearly, this is not the most innovative comedy ever to air on network television.

But despite its predictability, Everybody Loves Raymond is enjoyable because the acting is top-notch (it didn’t win all those Emmys for nothing) and, quite simply, the show is hilarious. Seriously. It’s not the type of comedy that you’re used to watching—unlike on The Office, for example, a joke on Everybody Loves Raymond is rarely subtle. But in a way, it’s nice to laugh at something as uncynical as Everybody Loves Raymond—it reminds me of a simpler time when I cracked up at Family Matters’ Steve Urkel and the hijinks of the Tanner family on Full House. Everybody Loves Raymond is easy to watch and easy to laugh at, so don’t rule it out just because it’s your mom’s favorite TV show.