actually, choosing to look extraordinarily silly can directly relate to being popular.
i am the perfect example, i went through grade 9-11 being pretty unpopular i had my friends but i wasnt "cool"
grade 12 i changed up my style a lot, i went from wearing pretty ordinary clothes, jeans and plain tees and then i started wearing flamboyant, stupid clothes. it was borderline gay to tell you the truth.
my hair was pretty medium length but im black so it curls into an afro, halloween i decided to cut my hair into a fade and be the fresh prince
examples vv
i started wearing short shorts, tank tops, and pf fliers to school about every day, with some ridiculous hair. id also occasionally where a pair of sweat pants. this stuff is all typically unacceptable for guys to wear to school, unless they want to look dumb and be mocked.
first day i came to school, it was halloween and everyone thought it was a pretty cool costume but the next couple of days i was just too lazy to cut off my hair. the "cool" kids tried to make fun of me but i pretty much just went along with it confirming their insults, which really just made them look dumb. People loved it so eventually people stopped making fun(very few people did) and i essentially became a celebrity, random kids coming up to me " dang, your hair is sick/dope/awesom/righteous(a plethora of compliments, well no one said righteous, but i just wanted to add that, haha)." People would be introduced to me and they would say, o ya ur that kid with the hair. Girls loved it too, i got more girls that year than any other time before put together.
I started reading that book "The Game" by Neil Strauss, which in what ive read so far seems to be as a self help book, showing how anyone can pick up women no matter what they look like. Through reading the book, ive discovered this was called peacocking, in a nut shell its dressing wildly to attract attention(the theory is, any attention is good attention). I always thought that this odd dress would mean social suicide but now i have seen that it is really the opposite.
I encourage everyone to try out this peacocking theory, it doesnt have to be as extreme as my fresh prince short short/tank top dress but as much as wearing bright shirts has the same affect(as told by the book). However if you choose to try it out, which i do encourage, you have to get comfortable with yourself and be confident in it or people will just see your insecurity and it wont work the same.
If you try it, good luck, if not step out of your comfort zone.
its better to try and fail than to not even try at all, who knows it could change your life, it definately affected mine, great confidence builder.
P.S. learn how to deflect insults
Cheers
Hope i didnt bore you