Justin Timberlake Secretly Cosplayed as Ernie at San Diego Comic-Con 2011

If you were at San Diego Comic-Con this year and happened to see a pair of men dressed as Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street on the convention floor, there's a decent chance you've actually been mere feet away from a cosplaying Justin Timberlake. The cover story of October's issue of Esquire magazine details the adventure, where Timberlake -- who dressed as Ernie -- called secretly walking around Comic-Con while dressed as a Muppet "one of the most memorable days of [his] life."The dress-up was part of an interview with reporter Chris Jones, who said that not only was the cosplay Timberlake's idea, but the pop star and actor specifically chose Bert and Ernie over Elmo and Cookie Monster, the other two costumes available, because he thought the famous roommates would "make for better bonding."

When Jones asked Timberlake to take off his mask and surprise a teenaged girl, Timberlake initially declined, and described how rarely he's able to walk down down the street without causing a fuss, let alone the shoulder-to-shoulder crowds at Comic-Con:

"No way, dude," he says. "You have no idea what it's like... I can sometimes walk around New York if I dress the right way, but that's it."

Shortly afterwards, Jones described the experience on Twitter:

If you were at Comic-Con yesterday, and you took a picture with a sketchy Bert and Ernie... I was Bert. Justin Timberlake was Ernie... I would pay good money to see the faces of the teenage girls who had no idea Justin Timberlake's arm was wrapped around them.

We'll have to wait for the issue to hit stands to hear more, but Esquire's preview of the article ends with a teaser quote that suggests Timberlake's Sesame Street adventure ended the way we imagine going out in public usually does for him: