Michael Mittermeier

Mittermeier was born in Dorfen, Upper Bavaria. During his childhood he lived in Bavaria. After school he studied theatre. In 1996, he started the comedy program Zapped. Zapped (1996) was shown on his tours in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. He participated in comedy television shows as well as the German TV show Wetten, dass..?. The most well-known parts of Zapped are parodies of German advertisements as well as the US television series MacGyver, which later became a running gag. Mittermeier popularized the term “Arschgeweih” (literally: ass antler) (tramp stamp). His next comedy programs were Wahnsinnlich (1990), Zapped! (1999), Back to Life (2002), Paranoid (2004), Safari (2007) and Achtung, Baby! (2010). In 2001, he was featured in the music video for the Guano Apes (credited here as the Guano Babes) song, "Kumba Yo". Mittermeier was also involved in the 2010 documentary This Prison Where I Live, featuring the Burmese comedian Zarganar who was imprisoned by his country's military junta for lampooning and criticizing them. In 2012, Mittermeier performed his English-language show A German on Safari in London and at the Edinburgh Fringe. Mittermeier married singer Gudrun Allwang in 1998.