At one time or another we’ve all thought that something we love is underrated. Your favorites get no respect. Nobody likes your TV show, band or book. But how does one prove to others that they need to show this thing some respect? How can we show, once and for all, that society criminally undervalues the objects of our affection? Or that we’ve been the right ones all along, and not creepy losers pining after a lost cause? This has always been a sticking point.

But with the publication of their book “Underrated: The Yankee Pot Roast Book of Awesome Underappreciated Stuff,” three Binghamton University alumni: Geoff Wolinetz, Nick Jezarian and Josh Abraham have changed all this. Finally, there exists a definitive guide to ground such arguments and resolve all disputes, if you take the word of three BU alumni.

The group centers the book around what they call the “Underrated Formula,” which explores a pop culture subject from four different angles: its commercial, critical and cultural success, and its cultural cachet. Using these measures, Wolinetz, Jezarian and Abraham are able to make a persuasive case for being the arbiters of cultural “underratedness” — and at the same time, to write an immensely funny, engaging book.

For lovers of pop culture, “Underrated” is heaven in book form. It is filled to the brim with dusty relics of pop culture both past and present, and intermixed with enough pertinent pop cultural minutiae and historical information to give trivia buffs aneurysms of joy. The authors present each of the items in the form of an essay, in which they lay out its reasons for being underrated, and argue for its greater cultural significance. With their pseudo-scientific formula and prodigious pop cultural knowledge to back them up, the trio can often be very persuasive.

For instance: we all know that “Futurama” and George Harrison were underappreciated, but who would have guessed that the Chipwich was underrated? Or that “The Jon Stewart Show” (the original one) was the best talk show of the 1990s despite lasting only one year and being all but completely forgotten now? Or that Oregon is a really sweet state? It’s all there, in the book.

The book is also a fantastic way of rediscovering old and perhaps forgotten pop cultural artifacts. In reading it, for instance, I was drawn to the old sitcom “NewsRadio.” “For four seasons beginning in 1995 and ending with Phil Hartman’s untimely death in 1998, eight actors who earned varying measures of success throughout their careers fulfilled their complete promise. In a word, they were perfect,” the trio wrote about the late sitcom. Add one to my Netflix queue.

If nothing else, the book is a breezy, fun read, perfect for lazy afternoons spent procrastinating. It is informative, enlightening and frequently laugh-out-loud hilarious. It is a treasure trove of pop cultural gems, and a bolster to the confidence of all those dejected fans of works whom no one else gives their due. Now, with this book, we know we were right all along.