As an artist, he was almost exclusively known under his pen name Loriot, which is the French term for the bird oriole depicted as a crest in the coat of arms of the Bülow family.

He was best known for his cartoons, the sketches from his 1976 television series Loriot, alongside Evelyn Hamann, and his two movies, Ödipussi (1988) and Pappa Ante Portas (1991).

His younger brother, Johann-Albrecht Sigismund von Bülow, was killed on 21 March 1945, less than two months before the end of World War II.

From 1950 onwards, he published cartoons under the pseudonym "Loriot", derived from the French word for oriole, his family's heraldic animal.

During the Christmas season of 1972 Wum's song "Ich wünsch' mir 'ne kleine Miezekatze" ("I wish I had a little kittycat"), sung in sprechgesang style, became popular enough to remain in the top position of the German pop charts for nine weeks.

Examples of sketches from the series include Der Lottogewinner ("The lottery winner"), Jodeldiplom ("yodeling diploma") and Englische Ansage ("English announcement").

Furthermore, Loriot was a member of the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste since that same year and of the Berlin Academy of Arts since 1997.

[1][4] His cartoons hinged on the contrast between the presented situation, the dignity displayed by his typically big nosed characters and the picture's caption.

Inevitably one of these elements gets out of line, for example, when he combines the caption "We demand equal treatment of men and women, even if the suckling baby might temporarily lose weight."

While reaching for it, he has to move a couch, the other end of which pushes a small table which tilts, and further items fall to the floor.

In a slow chain reaction, every of his attempts to bring things in order causes further and greater disorder in the room, including whole wall shelves breaking down.

What makes the above sketch typical for Loriot is not only the complete absurdity of the whole scene including the end, but that the character, while acting extremely clumsy, never loses his temper and keeps his dignity during the evolving catastrophe.

The final remark is even spoken in an incidental manner, such as if the painting would indeed be the only problem in the room, baffling the viewer (while the reaction of the maid is not shown).

Loriot's enormous popularity, his accurate language, and high-brow sense of comedy led to the adoption of a large number of phrases and inventions from the series' sketches into German common knowledge and everyday speech.

[6] The final court decision was announced on 27 March 2012; it upheld the interim order regarding the stamps, but overturned it for the signature.