Learn English – the origin of the expression “I’m broke”

I believe it is an Irish slang phrase.

You couldn't hit a cow's arse with a banjo (phr): bad aim, woeful hurler/darts player/soccer player etc.

Below are some Google findings which make me think this way:

• Dublin Slang
• Everyday English and slang in Ireland
• BBC - Northern Ireland - Voices
• Irish Vocabulary, Everyday English and Slang on Irish Celtic Jewels
• Everyday English and Slang in Ireland (scribd.com)

I also came accross an interesting forum thread which mentions this phrase. Here is an excerpt:

Jackie Milburn: - My dad used to say "son, yer couldn't hit a cow's arse with a shovel"

Juande the Spurrier: - There is a shovel that is called a banjo, because it's shaped like the musical instrument. Seems a farmer might be more likely to have a shovel than a banjo.

With further research, I found out that banjo is a shovel type indeed.

Banjo (as a shovel):

Banjo (as a musical instrument):

Shakespeare, Richard II, 1595

KING RICHARD II: The ripest fruit first falls, and so doth he; His time is spent, our pilgrimage must be. So much for that. Now for our Irish wars: We must supplant those rough rug-headed kerns, Which live like venom where no venom else But only they have privilege to live.

and in Richard III, 1592

Sir William Stanley. I, by attorney, bless thee from thy mother Who prays continually for Richmond's good: So much for that. The silent hours steal on, And flaky darkness breaks within the east.

It may have been used that way prior, but its usage was certainly immortalized by Shakespeare and blossomed poetically and rhetorically elsewhere after these two plays.