I, however, shall
gladly invoke the SkiFree Slopes.
"A slap to the face is an insult. A slap to the back of the head is a wake-up call."
- Leroy Jethro Gibbs, the king of the
Dope Slap.
I get the same impression here. Steve isn't trying to actually hurt Marten by hitting him, he's trying to say in a non-verbal yet clear and concise way, "Get your head in order." Marten's looking at this, not necessarily from the wrong point of view, but he is being too one-sided. Sure, if he'd been sad because he was stuck on the idea that Padma's grandma was sick, then that would be ok, but the excuse "I don't know how to dance!" is so bad it's almost irrelevant. I think Marten should count his blessings a bit more often.
HOWEVER, if there needed to be someone to put Steve in his place, and to be honest this is how I usually feel, I'd say... Hannelore.
It's worked before.