Backyard Stories

Backyard Stories is a series of animated stories created by Rebecca Parham.

Synopsis[]

Rebecca has multiple stories that occurred in her backyard when she was really young.

Stories[]

Jaco defecating in the backyard and using his lighter[]

In 1992, Rebecca and Rachel were over at his house in his backyard and Jaco needed to "release the hounds". However, instead of going inside and doing his business like a normal person, he defecated on the grass outside, and then his dog ate the feces.

He also once found a lighter in their backyard and decided that he wanted to make a campfire. However, at some point, he wanted to act all tough, so he pointed the lighter at Rebecca and her sister and lit it, and it just so happened that Rebecca's and Rachel's mother looked up from doing the dishes and saw that through the kitchen window, and she ran out screaming at them. Jaco had to go home.

Tree incident[]

The next year in 1993, Rebacca, Rachel and Jaco were playing baseball, until one of them hit the ball over the fence into the neighbor's yard. The backyard gate was locked, so Jaco climbed the giant oak tree so that he could swing over to the neighbor's tree climb down and retrieve the ball. Rachel and Rebecca saw him climb, periodically saying "You're gonna fall! We're gonna have to call the fire department to get you down!" This only strengthened his resolve to make his plan work, and kept climbing. He got close to the neighbor's tree and was about 15 feet off the ground, grabbed a pencil-thin branch and, as what Rebecca mentioned in the video, actually tried to swing to the neighbor's tree like he was Tarzan. (Rebecca said that Jaco apparently never saw on old Looney Tunes cartoon featuring Wile E. Coyote, and that if he did, he would've known better.) However, the branch snapped, and when he fell, he landed on the neighbor's wet bar, completely destroying it. Alarmed by Jaco's screaming, Rachel and Rebecca ran off and yelled for Ann. Jaco was screaming for help so loud that his father, who was working in their front yard up the street, heard the scream of pain, rushed to him, and kicked in the neighbor's gate, to get him. As a result, he only had a broken arm. (Rebecca said that she was still surprised that's all that happened to Jaco, and that he was not killed, or had fractured ribs, or brain damage, and that it was dumb luck.) Jaco also had to pay the neighbor back for the destroyed wet bar, adding insult to injury.

Breaking a window with a baseball[]

Rebecca and Rachel actually did the childhood cliché of breaking a window with a baseball. Rachel and Rebecca were in the backyard playing baseball with the neighborhood kids. Rebecca was pitching, Rachel was batting, Rebecca tossed her the ball, Rachel hit it, and the baseball veered off to the right and crashed right through their parents' bedroom window. Alarmed by this, everyone in the backyard, except for Rachel, ducked for cover. Ann and Mike came racing outside and found Rachel standing with the bat in her hand, and she was completely flustered. Both parents were mad, but Ann told Rachel to go get her piggy bank because she was gonna pay for it. However, Mike jumped in, saying that it was an accident, and that every kid should have a chance of unintentionally breaking a window with a baseball.

Swelling David's face[]

When Rebecca was about nine and should have known better, she had sometimes passed the time in the backyard by taking an old fence post, laying it over the side of their raised garden beds, and jumping on the end of it, launching an array of different materials into the air, such as rocks, pebbles, grass, sticks, etc. (Rebecca said that kids used to do this before the Internet even existed)

One day, she really wanted to launch a small, red ball off of her catapult, but there was a problem: The ball would roll off of the fence post before she could launch it. Logically, this was due to the laws of physics. Moreover, in order to complete her little experiment, she needed an assistant, which, in this case, was her little brother, David, who was about three years old at the time she was doing this experiment, and was very susceptible to suggestion, which worked out perfectly for her, but not for him.

She told him on the count of three, he was going to put the ball on the fence post, so she could quickly jump on the other end before it rolled off. (Rebecca said that it was "simple enough".) However, when she counted to three to commence their experiment, David did something a little unforeseen. He leaned down directly over the fence post to very carefully place the ball. And by the time Rebecca looked over and saw him doing that, it was already too late, because her entire weight came down and the fence post smacked him right in the face.

David rightfully screamed at the top of his lungs and ran inside to Ann and Mike Parham, who were mad. David's whole face swelled up and there was a puncture wound on his cheek that was maybe an inch away from his eye, and he still has a semi-visible scar there to this day (David said in the video "I don't even remember this happening."). Rebecca got in a lot of trouble and her parents yelled at her that she could have blinded David, even though it was unintentional, and that David wasn't supposed to put his face over the catapult. Afterwards, she felt really bad, to the point where she still felt bad years later as an adult whenever someone brought up the story. In the end, Rebecca suggests that the viewer get some sunshine and fresh air, and says that it builds character, and also very good for your mental health.

Characters[]

Reception[]

The reception for this video is very positive. People mostly love and share the "I want to be a ghost story!" sentence.

Easter eggs[]

When Ann Parham was talking to Rachel about her piggy bank, Rebecca used [ Waddles from Gravity Falls] as a reference to a piggy bank.
- When David and Rachel Parham were talking to each other, they were also holding soda cans called Pitt Cola, which is also a Gravity Falls reference.
TomSka and Danny Sexbang were featured as 2 examples of neighborhood kids.
Rebecca holding a bat in the thumbnail is a possible reference to Tabbes.

Errors[]

In the thumbnail, David's left cheek is bleeding, but in the video, his right check is bleeding.
The fall of Jaco (along with its sound) lasted longer than it should. However, this was done on purpose for humor.
When Young Rebecca said "Well, I'm dead. I bequeath everything to my Teddy Ruxpin (which were popular back then).", and writes on a will with a crayon, it says "Orange" despite the color clearly being blue. However, this was done on purpose for humor.

Other things to announce[]

PAX South[]

She is going to be at PAX South again, January 18th through the 20th in San Antonio, Texas, and like last year, she'll just walk around, and she wants her fans to say hi to her.

VidCon London[]

She is also going to be a featured creator at VidCon London February 14th to the 17th. It's going to be her first time in Europe, and she is going to do a lot of convention activities over there.

Songs on other channels[]

She recently did a cover of How Far I'll Go from Moana with Jordan Sweet and a rock cover of Defying Gravity with Caleb Hales.

Teaser frames[]

In her Pin Theatre video, Rebecca Parham showcased a very small part of this video before showcasing and advertising her set of Let Me Explain Studios merchandise. She released 3 teaser frames from the video on her Twitter account.

There were the 3 teaser frames:

Trivia[]

RebeccaGoingOutWithUnknownGuy — The original frame.

At the beginning of the video, the frame of Rebecca going out with a treehouse was a replacement of Rebecca going out with an unknown person.
Rebecca's entire family was shown in this video.
This is the second video explaining something that happened in her childhood. The first one is Stole Mom's Credit Card to Buy N64.
The bully kid shown from Draw My Life was different from Jaco.
This is the second video to showcase multiple stories in one video. The first one is My Real Ghost Encounters.
A few seconds from this video was already previewed from Pin Theatre.
The flan censorship was shown when Jaco's buttocks was revealed and when he excreted.
The fireplace takes an appearance for the second time. However, it doesn't represent the naked Squidward drawing.
Rebecca confirmed that she labelled the blue crayon "orange" on purpose, probably for comedic effect.^[1]
Despite the fact that Rebecca was holding a bat in the thumbnail, she was never shown using it. Her sister, Rachel, was using it instead.
It is the 4th video to accumulate 10 million views. The first being My Teacher Murdered Someone, the second being Stole Mom's Credit Card to Buy N64 and the third being My School Dress Codes.