Have tried just being their friend?When I was in grade school I never got bullied because every time I could sense a bully honing in on me, I would just make them laugh. Then I would just avoid them and they would find someone else. Also, even if he is nerdy, there is no reason to let others know how nerdy. Basically, if he is carrying around Yu gi oh or beyblades and other anime, he has it coming. That stuff is perverted.

Use it to empower yourself... have gone through 12+ year of bullying and that helped me a lot in my adulthood... have thick skin to not care about any provocation or idiotic chastising.

My tatic was to incentive them to bully, name calling and everything else, so there wasn't much fun to keep going for them...

He can also tape it and then sue and collect a lot of money.

precious advice.

Are you his only friend? If yes then let him into your circle of friends.

I've never experienced bullying but I think this might help. Back when I was in high school, my circle was friends with both the popular, and unpopular people.

Tell him to stop being so beta and become an Alpha. The steps in between are trivial.

give your friend a machine gun.

Not funny...

I should get baned for such a disrespectful comment. I must be the antichrist. oh god what a bad person i am.

Suggestions:

1. Get him a hot girlfriend.
2. If it's just smack talk, find a way to win. Since this is stereotype school, jocks will be dumb right? Should be easy to win a battle of wits.
3. Make sure he's always with at least 1 friend so he has some confidence that someone is there to back him up.
4. Ignore it...if it's just verbal it's basically like internet trolling...get over it...

Best of luck, I always feel bad for the bullied.