At secondary school in Recklinghausen , Hape Kerkeling and some fellow students formed a band Gesundfutter , meaning: health food and published a record Hawaii.
Kerkeling started his career as a comedian in radio, working for various German broadcasting companies, such as WDR and BR. The best-known character in this show was the little boy Hannilein , played by Kerkeling, an irritating child with red hair in a pudding-basin style, dungarees and sitting on giant-sized chairs, who commented on the world of adults.
Later came guest appearances and sketches on the Radio Bremen show Extratour. This show, a satirical spoof on prime-time TV shows, had a totally new format and was awarded several television prizes such as the Goldene Kamera , the Adolf-Grimme-Preis and the Bayerischer Fernsehpreis. On the show, Kerkeling made television history on 25 April when he dressed up as Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands on a state visit to Berlin and almost managed to get into Schloss Bellevue to meet the President of Germany for lunch.
The satirical song from this show, Das ganze Leben ist ein Quiz All life is a quiz , made it into the German pop charts. In , Kerkeling's first film came out: Kein Pardon [ de ] , which he directed and starred in, as well as helping to write the script.
In , Kerkeling turned down an offer by the big public broadcasting company ZDF to work on the popular prime-time show Wetten, dass..? This was similar in concept to Total Normal and viewing figures were relatively high; still this is considered as his first flop. In the second half of the s, Kerkeling worked once more for ARD , presenting the show Warmumsherz Heartwarming , and filmed several television films Club Las Piranjas [ de ] , Willi und die Windzors , ; Die Oma ist tot , In , Kerkeling returned to success with his Sat.
