 It was originally intended that the character "Weed", who was almost  300 lbs, would be hanged in the tree. When they tried strap the  hanging harness around Weed and do a "hanging test", they had Weed  step off the ladder wearing the harness. It was so painful due to  his weight and it cutting into his body that decided to hang Jeremy  instead. After almost 12 minutes, the harness cut into him as well,  so much so that he passed out and they had to pull down and revive  him.