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What do they mean when they say "He can't find himself way out of paper bag?" Or "Couldn't manage himself out of paper bag?"

Also what is the history of this statement? What is the origin?

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I usually hear it as "He couldn't [some verb] out of a wet paper bag". The wet part seems important, and seems to refer to brown paper bags which tear at the lightest touch, when wet. Informal. Possibly some people have started dropping out the word "wet" when they use the phrase. – Warren P Jun 13 '11 at 17:48
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Actually it seems I am mistaken. "Fight his way out of a paper bag" appears to be far more common, and far older, so 'wet paper bag' seems a later embellishment. – Warren P Jun 13 '11 at 17:55
@Warren: "Find his way out of a paper bag" and "Fight his way out of a wet paper bag" have rather different meanings. The first is talking about stupidity, the second about weakness. – user1579 Jun 13 '11 at 18:14

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We've all watched a kitten emerge from a paper bag, yes? I believe the ease with which such a small animal can accomplish the task highlights the weakness of a person who can't.

Variant:

He couldn't punch his way out of a paper sack.

Regardless of the particular version in question, it normally applies to weakness and inability to do something fairly routine. Note the difference between this and the variations on:

He couldn't find his buttocks with both hands, a roadmap, and a flashlight.

The phrases in this pattern relate to general stupidity.

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BIG LOL for the variant :D – Hasan Khan Jun 13 '11 at 19:36
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There's a programmer's insult that I like a lot: "He couldn't program a $20 out of an ATM." And (after a number of security flaws, backdoors, and outright frauds came to light a few years ago) "He couldn't program a Republican victory out of a Diebold." – MT_Head Jun 13 '11 at 21:36
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My father used to say that someone "couldn't fight his way out of a wet paper bag" as a way to indicate physical smallness and weakness. I only started hearing generalizations of this (act his way, find his way, lie his way etc) in the last 10 or 15 years. The fight version is pretty obvious in meaning and hardly even a metaphor were it not for the fact a person can't fit in a paper bag. The rest are constructions from that one.

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+1 on this. I'm pretty sure it started with "Fight his way out of...". It is only fairly recently that the saying became so cliched that you see "out of a paper bag" to be some kind of universal expression of borderline incompetence. – T.E.D. Jun 13 '11 at 20:08

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