Mo Gilligan has built his career by turning everyday observations into comedy, moving from South London buses to BAFTA-winning television and major stand-up stages. Now, the comedian is bringing that same curiosity to a very different kind of performance with Netflix’s Big Chicken: A Fast Food Conspiracy. The documentary, released on August 5, follows Gilligan as he investigates his long-standing love of fried chicken and the machinery behind it. 

What makes the experiment more revealing, however, is that Gilligan is not simply investigating the takeaway industry. He is also discovering a few uncomfortable things about himself.

The funniest part of Mo Gilligan’s confession is also the most revealing. His assumption that an active lifestyle could somehow cancel out his eating habits sounds like the kind of personal loophole many people have quietly negotiated with themselves. In an interview with What’s on Netflix, Gilligan admitted, 

“I was so naive, I’ll be so honest with you. I was just like, “Well, I’m quite healthy. I’m quite fit. I go to the gym, I run. I’ve got an active lifestyle, but also I eat, from what I feel, really healthy food.” Also, with my relationship with fried chicken, I was like, “Well, it’s white meat, really. It’s not like I’m eating steak every day. How bad can it be?” he said.  

The experiment pushed that logic to its breaking point. Gilligan ate fried chicken three times a day for 28 days, turning a familiar comfort food into something closer to a daily endurance test. Netflix describes the documentary as an investigation into the historical, cultural, economic, and industrial forces behind the global obsession with fried chicken, while Gilligan also examines his own relationship with the food. 

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And that self-deprecating honesty fits neatly with the story Gilligan has been telling throughout his career.

A recent Guardian profile traces Mo Gilligan’s unlikely route from growing up on a South London council estate to becoming one of Britain’s most recognizable comedians. His comedy instincts developed long before television, with impressions, accents, and performances at the back of school buses eventually becoming the raw material for his online sketches. The retail chapter is particularly revealing. 

Gilligan worked across Jo Malone, Thomas Pink, Apple, and Levi’s while simultaneously building his stand-up career. His breakthrough arrived through viral videos, with Drake sharing one of his clips and Ian Wright liking one of his posts. He eventually quit retail, with his comedy career accelerating soon after. 

That journey gives Big Chicken another layer. Gilligan has always turned ordinary experiences into material, whether it was a bus ride, a retail customer, or now a box of fried chicken. For Gilligan, the biggest joke may be that the food he thought he understood was the thing that taught him the most about himself.

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 What do you think of his candid admission and the premise of Big Chicken? Share your thoughts in the comments.