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Writer's pictureJace Shoemaker-Galloway

Dress Like a Dork Day: Famous television and movie dorks


On the “heels” of Wear Something Gaudy Day, October 19 also celebrates fashion. Well, sort of. It’s Dress Like a Dork Day. A dork is defined as someone who is out of touch, a social misfit or someone who tends to look "odd or behave ridiculously around others."

Wear Something Gaudy Day

This annual holiday celebrates the less-than-fashionable fashion and encourages folks to get their inner dork on! Although the origins of this holiday are unknown, today is a great day to clean out that over-crowded closet and have a little fun.

How to Dress Like a Dork

Dressing like a dork is pretty simple. All you need to do is slick back your hair, get out the plaid polyester pants, hideous shirt, suspenders, white knee socks or mismatched argyle socks and your favorite dickey. Add ginormous rimmed glasses with a bit of masking tape, tuck in the shirt, wrap the fanny pack around your fanny and you are good to go!

Famous Television and Movie Dorks

  • Cameron Frye was the perfect friend on the super-popular 1986 film classic, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

  • Rick Moranis in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.

  • Anthony Edwards and Robert Carradine both played dorky characters in Revenge of the Nerds.

  • Steve Carrell played a boss nerd on the television sitcom, The Office, and also played a 40-Year-Old Virgin.

  • If you’ve ever seen Crispin Glover on the late night shows, his nerdy character inBack to the Future films probably wasn’t much of a stretch in real-life!

  • Anthony Michael Hall and Molly Ringwald played numerous nerdy characters in several of John Hughes’ classic movies like Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club.

  • Do you want to play a game? Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy did!

  • Woody Allen and Diane Keaton in Annie Hall. ‘Nuff said!

  • Steve Urkel on Family Matters.

  • Dwight Shrute from The Office is not only an annoying dork, he owns a beet farm!

  • George Michael Bluth’s character from the television series, Arrested Development.

And speaking of dorks - there is also National Be a Dork Day, too.

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