Snap,crackle and pop
 

Looking for some insight as usual. On cold start, the engine starts fine and then settles into a cacophony of pops, stumbling on the idle, won't rev and a weird metallic pop like an exhaust pipe hitting something. It wasn't doing it on every start up in the beginning, only when my wife got in the car. It would generally smooth out after pumping the gas for a few minutes and then drive fine. Haven't checked for error codes yet. Any thoughts?

Possible air leak which reduces as the engine warms up. Possible cracked oil filler tube.

Exhaust leak?

Car is getting excited when your wife gets in. Who says the Boxster is a chick's car anyways! It's a man baby! Proof positive to the contrary!

Under the "Gee I feel Dumb, Dumb, DUMB" column
 

I figured I give it one more look before towing the blankety-blank to the garage. I'm messing around checking connections when my hand bumps against the air intake tube. Guess what was just hanging by gnat's hair on the MAF end of the tube.