In 1997, Böhmermann was hired as a columnist at the Bremen daily newspaper Die Norddeutsche. He joined Radio Bremen as a presenter in 1999, where he also had a stint as a comedy Writer.

In February 2015, Böhmermann's late-night show Neo Magazin Royale created the song and music video "V for Varoufakis". The title references V for Vendetta, which introduced the Guy Fawkes mask as a symbol of rebellion. In addition to poking fun at Germans generally, the video explores the German fascination with Greek Finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, who is known for being articulate, physically attractive and having a stylish, if unconventional fashion sense, while also portraying Greece's dependence on German money during the Greek government-debt crisis. Unlike most content on the ZDF program Neo Magazin Royale, the song is in English and not in German.

Twenty people lodged a complaint because of a poem named "Schmähkritik" ("abusive criticism") Böhmermann presented in his satire show Neo Magazin Royale that was aired on the ZDF public channel on 31 March 2016. The proceedings instituted by the prosecutor's office for "insulting of organs and representatives of foreign states" are based on principles §103 and §104 in the German penal code. Böhmermann, among other things, called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan “the man who beats girls”, and said that Erdogan loved to “fuck goats and suppress minorities, kick Kurds, hit Christians, and watch child pornography.” Much of the rest of the poem is devoted to associating Erdogan with various less accepted forms of sexuality. Böhmermann deliberately played with the limits of satire and said several times that this form of abusive criticism was not allowed in Germany. The poem was released two weeks after the German political satire TV show extra 3 had aired a critical song about Erdogan, which led to protests of the Turkish government.

The conclusion of the video shows an actual clip of Varoufakis in which he says "and stick the finger to Germany, and say 'well, you can now solve this Problem for yourself'. Right?" The clip shows Varoufakis giving the finger, a gesture called "Stinkefinger" in German. This clip had been taken out of context: Varoufakis had used a rhetorical Example of what not to do. After the well-known TV host Günther Jauch confronted Varoufakis with the video clip in an interview (still out of context), German news media made the issue of Varoufakis giving Germany the finger into a minor scandal. The New York Times ran an article with the title "German Media Want Greek Finance Minister’s Head Over ‘Fingergate’". Varoufakis himself, presumably not remembering the specific speech but presumably knowing that he would never have given the finger in a non-ironical way, briefly falsely claimed that the video must be doctored. NZZ am Sonntag called for Günther Jauch to be fired for bad journalism.