The phenomenon of crowdsourcing clues to solve real-life mysteries has become mind-blowingly (and almost eerily) legit. Last week, in an epic story, Reddit users helped put to rest the 20-year-old “Grateful Doe” case. Not all tales of internet detective work may end up on Dateline, but they’re worth telling, anyway. This one involves car commercial music, some very determined redditors, and the passing of time.

People want what they can’t have. Reddit user franklymydeer, who is 25 and lives in London, couldn’t have this one song he heard in a car ad. So he wanted it. He needed it. This is what happened, as he shared with Reddit’s Casual Conversation community.

A year or so ago, he randomly heard the song on YouTube.

“I didn’t have AdBlock at the time, so I was watching an ad for the Seat Toca (a car). There was a song in the background of this ad, and I loved it. The ad was only about 30-seconds long, but the song was bloody amazing. I was immediately determined to find this song.”

The song:

Catchy, right?

Franklymydeer quelled any concerns that he secretly works for the SEAT marketing department and was trying to launch some rogue ad campaign: “I want to state that Seat [is] a terrible company, their cars are awful, and they are capitalist pigdogs that do not deserve your money.”

He tells Upvoted why the song struck him to the point of near-obsession: “It’s difficult to describe,” he wrote to us in a message. “It’s definitely not the kind of music I’m normally into (I usually like hardcore punk; the new Leftöver Crack album is sick), but something about the song just grabbed me. Also, I think the fact that I couldn’t have it just made me want it more. You always want what you cannot have, right?”

So he made it his mission to find it.

“I started watching the ad on repeat, trying to figure out the lyrics so I could google the song and find it (my usual strategy). But nothing turned up. “People in the comments section were discussing the song; several other people were trying to find it. Someone said it sounded like a guy called Mike something (I can’t remember the full name of the artist). So I searched for Mike something, and went through a lot of his discography. But still—no luck. I tried searching his name + the lyrics, but… nothing.”

He then turned to technology.

“I tried using Shazam. For those who aren’t familiar, this is an app that uses the microphone on your phone to identify songs. The idea is that you play the song, turn on the app, and the app will tell you the name and artist of the song. But Shazam was bloody hopeless, and couldn’t identify the song. I downloaded the app, just for this one song, and deleted it when it failed me.”

At this point, the Reddit user was watching the 30-second ad once or twice a day, just to hear a snippet of the mystery song.

And, of course, he turned to Reddit.

Franklymydeer discovered that other Reddit users were searching for the song, too. In Reddit’s Name That Song community, a redditor posted the video and wrote “Lord I am BEGGING YOU to identify this song.” Taking further action, redditor JadedDarkness emailed the marketing department of the SEAT car company.

This was the reply from SEAT. Spoiler: It’s not good.

It said the song was made strictly for the ad, and wasn’t available elsewhere. Franklymydeer wrote that he was “heartbroken, but also felt a certain sense of closure.” He moved on with his life, almost forgetting about the song.

But then! A year after he first heard the song, he received some news.

“I get a random PM on Reddit. It’s from a user I’ve never spoken to—a user who frequents subreddits that I’m not subscribed to. I have no idea who this person is.”

This was the message.

Franklymydeer didn’t know who Reddit user TheVikingHoward was—the two had no previous communication. His initial guess was it was someone trying to promote their music by blasting out messages to random users. But he decided to give the song a second glance. It turned out the song was only available on Spotify, so he created an account just to hear the song.

This is what happened when he heard the song.

“Yes. Yes. IT’S THE BLOODY SONG! IT’S THE ACTUAL, LEGIT, FULL VERSION OF THE SONG!”

Franklymydeer tells Upvoted, “Once I heard the first few seconds of the song, my little brain exploded. I felt a weird mix of utter confusion and total elation. I’ve never experienced an emotion like it.

“I had no idea how they found me, or how they knew about The Song. I thought I had only mentioned it to my close friends. I was simultaneously perplexed, deeply satisfied, and freaked out.”

Franklymydeer responded to TheVikingHoward with elation and deep gratitude.

TheVikingHoward replied back.



“Never before have I felt such love for a total stranger,” Franklymydeer wrote.

Redditors were so amazed by this random act of internet kindness—Who the? How the?—that they asked the mystery person TheVikingHoward to answer questions in an Ask Me Anything discussion. TheVikingHoward obliged. The redditor explained that he listened to the lyrics and kept searching Spotify for what he thought might be the song title.

TheVikingHoward’s response “Shh bby is ok” has become a meme that is now printed on T-shirts and mugs.

Franklymydeer said these are the lessons he’s taken away from the whole experience:

“One, the Internet is like an elephant—it’s big and grey and never forgets.

“Two, TheVikingHoward is a great guy.

“Three, sometimes, if you want something, the best thing to do is completely forget about it, wait a year, and then it will be handed to you on a plate.”