Best known for his crônicas and texts of humor, more precisely satire of manners, published daily in several Brazilian newspapers, Verissimo is also a cartoonist, translator, and television writer, playwright and novelist.

When he was 14 he produced with his sister, Clarissa, and a cousin, a local periodical with news of family, which was hung in the bathroom of the house and was called "The Patentino" ("patente" is the way toilet are known in Rio Grande do Sul).

When he lived in Washington, Verissimo developed his passion for jazz, and started studying saxophone and took frequent trips to New York, attending performances of the greatest musicians of the era, including Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.

In 1970 he moved to the newspaper Folha da Manhã, where he held his daily column until 1975, writing about sport, cinema, literature, music, food, politics and behavior, always with irony and personal ideas, and short stories of humor which illustrated their views.

In 1971 he created the alternative weekly O Pato Macho with a group of friends in the press and publicity in Porto Alegre, with humorous texts, cartoons, stories and interviews, which circulated throughout the year in the city.

The character, created (but unused) for a television comedy program with Jô Soares, is an orthodox Freudian psychoanalyst, but with the accent, the language and customs typical of the border of Rio Grande do Sul, Uruguay and Argentina .

The naive character, who gave to his pet cat the name of the spokesman for President-General Figueiredo, marked the decline of the Brazilian military government, which was almost completed 20 years.

Throughout the 1980s, Verissimo has established itself as a phenomenon of popularity rare among Brazilian writers, keeping weekly columns in several newspapers and throwing at least one book a year, always on the bestseller lists, and writing sitcoms for TV Globo.

In 2006, Verissimo reached 70 years of age established as one of the greatest contemporary Brazilian writers, having sold a total of more than 5 million copies of his books.