Stealing Stories

Question:

I'm sure you've opened your inbox to find a silly story or two forwarded to you by a friend, whose friend sent it to him, and so on and so forth. But where do these stories originate? I've had a few that have come across my mind that would make BRILLIANT 1-2 minute short comedies, but I don't want them to get to festival status and have it bite me in the butt.

Is it really that serious. They aren't really festival worthy pieces, rather just something cheap and fun to do to add to my reel of work.

What are your opinions? Should I worry too much about this, or just go out and shoot! Or if you have any suggestions on how I can find out the author of such things that have been passed on by hundreds of millions of people...

Thanks guys!