Joe got hit by several of the snowballs, spitting out some of the snow. He then went to make a counter attack, but in his childish whimsy forgot this was 3D snow, and packing didn't work the same way.
He clued in after looking at his hand for a second and realized no snowball was formed, so he then realized his mistake and followed suit to pelt Noel with snowballs.
Joe looked a little disheartened to be called a monster by the man he didn't know.